The character arc of Walt Disney
Born 5 December 1901 in Chicago. Died 15 December 1966 in Burbank. Between the two sit a bankrupt cartoon studio at twenty one, a star character signed away without knowing it, a mouse sketched on the train home, a film the industry called folly, and a park the industry called worse. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Walt Disney?
He lost the rabbit and drew the mouse.
His first studio, Laugh O Gram in Kansas City, went bankrupt when he was twenty one. He bought a one way ticket to California with forty dollars and a reel of film in a cardboard suitcase. Five years later he had a hit character at last, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and then discovered in a New York office that the distributor owned Oswald outright, and had hired away most of his animators to prove it.
On the long train ride home he began sketching a replacement he would own completely. Mickey arrived with sound, in Steamboat Willie, and everything after ran through that whistle. When he bet the studio and the house on a feature length animated film, the industry called Snow White Disney's Folly right up until it became the highest grossing film of its day.
He kept making the same bet at larger scales: a park in an orange grove that broke down all through its opening day and became the happiest place on earth, and, in his last months, maps of a Florida project he knew he would not see. His line is worth reading for its refusals: he never signed a character away again, and he never stopped betting the house.
The moments
Walt Disney's timeline.
The 1920s
First animation job
Everyday. The Kansas City Film Ad Company, cutting out paper joints and learning the camera.
Laugh O Gram went bankrupt
Setback, and it changed his direction. He left for California with forty dollars and a reel of Alice in a cardboard suitcase.
The Disney studio began
Milestone. A garage, his brother Roy on the books, and the Alice Comedies to deliver.
Married Lillian Bounds
Everyday. She inked cels at the studio, and talked him out of naming the mouse Mortimer.
Lost Oswald, and his team
Setback, and it changed his direction. The character and most of the animators belonged to the distributor. On the train home he started sketching.
Fight for Oswald, or start over
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: draw a new character, taken, or fight Mintz for the rabbit. He had signed Oswald away without knowing it, and he never signed a character away again.
Steamboat Willie opened
Milestone, and it changed everything. Sound, a whistle, and a mouse he owned outright. Everything after ran through this.
The 1930s
A first Academy Award
Milestone. Two in one night: a special award for the mouse, and the first cartoon Oscar for colour.
Snow White premiered
Milestone, and it changed his direction. They called it Disney's Folly while he mortgaged the house; it became the biggest film of its day.
The 1940s
The studio strike
Setback. Half the animators walked out. The strike ended; the family feeling took years longer.
The 1950s
Disneyland opened
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Rides broke and the asphalt melted on day one, and the place still became the happiest on earth.
The 1960s
Mary Poppins premiered
Milestone. The studio's high water mark in his lifetime: five Academy Awards.
Maps of the Florida project
Everyday. He spent his last months at maps of what became Walt Disney World; it opened without him and because of him.
The line ends 15 Dec 1966, in Burbank. What it set moving has not ended: the castle opens every morning, and every studio that bets the house on an unreasonable idea is quoting him.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
His took sixty five years, one suitcase and one mouse. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, 2006.
- The Walt Disney Archives.
- The Academy Awards database, 1932 and 1965.
- The Colony Theatre premiere record, 18 November 1928.
- The Disneyland opening day record, 17 July 1955.