Walter E. Disney

Walt Disney

Napoleon once said, "A hero is anyone who has an ability to gradually grow from no one to a someone by taking a talent to new levels." My hero is Walt Disney, a person who changed the entertainment industry and popular culture, forever. Walt was a small town boy in a strict family who spent almost all his time drawing, and studying elements of design. By simply not giving up, Walt and his brother Roy were able to start a revolutionary animation studio even though they both lacked money. Walt created the first animated movie with hi-technicolor and full sound. Disney went from drawing advertisements for a barber to earn a nickel, to creating television shows, movies, books, merchandise, educational programs and his own line of animal based characters. Just by drawing the animals being friendly and happy, he opened the world's eyes to environmental and animal awareness. Through all his work, Walt still was able to have time for his family and travel around the world to spread educational and environmental awareness.

Though Walt Disney seemed upbeat and happy, his childhood was filled with problems, causing him to focus more on drawing and cartooning. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5th, 1901 in a dangerous Chicago neighborhood. Walt dealt with father Elias Disney's strict rules and expectations. Because of his father's strict rules, Walt usually spent his time at his friend's house next door. When Walt wasn't able to be at his friend's house, Walt sat in a forest and drew characters and cartoons until morning. Walt had three brothers, Herbert and Raymond who he didn't exactly get along with and Roy, who was the only brother in which Walt was able to understand and talk to.

Walt Disney started out with different jobs and moved all over the USA before the day when his career finally launched successfully. At age 16, Walt dropped out of high school to drive a Red Cross ambulance in World War II. After a year, he wasn't needed and moved back home. Around the age of 19, Walt moved to Los Angeles, California to apply for jobs as a film director. When that failed, Walter went back to cartooning a comic called "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Soon, he was offered a job in New York to animate the episodes. After around 3 years managing the Alice comics, Walt and his brother Roy had enough money to open up their own studio. In 1924, Walt and Roy Disney had created "Disney Brothers Company." A year afterwards, Walt got married to an animator named Lilly Bounds. Disney hired 6 workers at his studio to help animate and create films. Charles Mintz, a fellow animator joined the company and they teamed up to continue Walt's latest creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In 1928, Mintz cheated Disney out of the company and the growing success of Oswald. Disney no longer owned copyright to a character he had created. As Walt was traveling to Los Angeles, he created a new character; Mortimer "Mickey" Mouse. Though it took a few years, in 1930, Disney opened a new studio and created a short starring the mouse called "Plane Crazy." It was then, that Walt won his first academy award for Mickey Mouse. Walt began working on his first full length film called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

After Snow White was released, Walt's career launched. It was then that he was one of the most known people in the United States. Disney became surprisingly successful after Snow White. Walt and his workers were able to open two new studios and began animating two new movies, Fantasia and Bambi. Disney began to gain interest in construction and made blueprints to build for a new upcoming theme park in California. Finally, in 1955, Disney opened Disneyland in California. For the next ten years, Disney planned and created scripts for new movies, and bought land in Orlando, Florida to begin his plans for Disney World. On December 15th, 1966, Walt Disney died from lung cancer. After his death, Disney left everything to his brother Roy. Soon after his death, the Disney Company made the decision to stop hand-drawn animation and move onto computer animation. Roy even extended this decision by purchasing Pixar Animation Studios; causing Walt�s original studio in California to now have over 200 computers and is used only for that purpose. In total, Walt won 22 Academy Awards and has been recognized by over 200 organizations.

A true hero display qualities of perseverance and intelligence. Heroes show determination and dedication. Walt Disney never gave up on his company and his work. As a person, he was willing to travel wherever it took for him to launch his career successfully. Dedicating himself to his company, he never settled for less than the absolute best and his company almost always came first. Though Walt had a family and a big job, he still found time to be with his family. As a young person, Walt's father pressured him into becoming a lawyer. It took courage, and perseverance to tell his father that this was not what he wanted. He was patient in waiting for jobs to come about and patient to make money, and it was worth the wait because in the end it paid off. Walt Disney went from a small nobody to one of the most known people in the entertainment industry.