There will be hardly a household in the Western world, or the Eastern world either for that matter, which will not encounter a Disney movie, book, disc, DVD or other item of merchandise this Christmas. The Disney Corporation is one of the major conglomerates in the world of entertainment. Ads in Irish newspapers offers trips to the Eurodisney theme park near Paris, to Disneyworld in Florida and to Disneyland in California. Walt Disney died 40 years ago, after spending 40 years in the animated cartoon business.
Walt Disney's origins are disputed: some have it that his family was of Spanish descent, but that seems unlikely. It is more likely that he came from Scots-Irish origins, in the American Middle West. He trained as a commercial artist but from all accounts, he was not a very good one. He was, however, a sharp businessman, and saw a great potential in the cartoon business. His first Mickey Mouse cartoon 'Steamboat Willie' appeared in 1928, at the beginning of the sound era. Disney provided the voice for the rodent, originally called Mortimer Mouse, later changed to 'Mickey,' it is said, after the then child actor, Mickey Rooney. The first Technicolor cartoon came out in 1933, and there then followed the celebrated Silly Symphonies with such stars as Mickey, Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy.
But Disney's sights were set higher, and when he announced in 1935, that he was planning a full-length cartoon feature, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', the other studio bosses though he was crazy. He mortgaged his house, his car and put himself in hock in may ways to soldier on with the difficult and complex undertaking. From its original release in 1937, 'Snow White' was a tremendous success and still continues to make money for the Disney company. Other features followed in its wake: 'Pinocchio', 'Fantasia', 'Dumbo' and 'Bambi' - all between 1939 and 1942. These achievements in the field of full length cartoons have never been bettered by Disney, or by anyone else. When the United States entered World War II, a lot of the Disney Studios' energies went into making training documentaries and other educational material for the US Army and Navy.
Disney always knew that children love to be scared, up to a point, as is instanced by the blood-thirstiness and violence of many of the old European folk tales. Parts of 'Snow White' are so terrifying that in many areas in England children were not admitted, unless accompanied by an adult. Disney also pioneered nature documentaries, and the efforts of such as David Attenborough had their inspiration in the much-praised True-Life documentaries of the 1950s. His inter-blending of animation with actual actors in pictures such as 'Three Caballeros' and 'Song of the South' was revolutionary, but when the studios went in for non-animated feature films, the results were less successful. Wholesome, to be sure, but just a little too gooey. His animal characters remained strictly kids stuff when compared with their counterparts in MGM and Warners cartoons.
Behind Uncle Walt's avuncular smile and twinkling eyes there lurked a deep and dark-set personality. He was paranoiac about the threat from Communism at the time of Red scare that gripped America in the years following World War II. He had more labour problems than any other studios, remarkable in that his employees were mostly animators. It is a fact that craft unions could, and did, make trouble for the Hollywood studios in the 1940s, but these unions were controlled by capitalist-minded Mafiosi, rather than red activists taking their orders from Moscow. Disney could be ruthless in destroying anyone suspected of Communist sympathies or pro-Soviet leanings, just a short time after the Russians were allies of the US in the great World War. Disney was never known to wittingly hire a Jew, and even today the faces of black people are conspicuous by their absence from the theme parks and funlands. The Disney signature (designed for him) ranks only with the Coca-Cola logo and the McDonald's arches as the defining symbol of American cultural imperialism throughout the planet.
In 1958, Disney dispatched two researchers over to Ireland to do some study on leprechaun lore for the film 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People'. These gentlemen were directed to Kerry, where certain of the locals assured them that they could observe and photograph leprechauns in their natural habitat, if the price was right. This went on for two or three weeks, but when the invoices for expenses reached the infuriated Disney in Hollywood, the two studio researchers were ordered back home, pronto. Uncle Walt was no dope.
There is an exhibition in Paris now, illustrating the debt owed by Disney animators to the great European romantic painters of the 19th century.
There is a great urban myth that Walt Disney's remains were put into some form of deep freeze apparatus, to await the day when medical science could re-animate him, as it were. In fact, the remains were cremated, so we can say, with confidence, we will never see his likes again.
In evidence the court heard that an action seeking damages had been taken by a group of aggrieved residents against the local roads authority. These plaintiffs had all suffered from bruises, sprains, fractures and broken bones after they had come to grief whilst walking along a particular road in severely frosty weather because, they alleged, that gritting lorries always neglected this part of the thoroughfare, making it very perilous underfoot. "What you might call" said the presiding Judge, "A slip road."
Radio Ulster reported last week that traffic wardens ordered an ambulance to drive away from the front of a Derry shopping mall whilst paramedics were inside threatening a member of staff. This was quickly corrected to "treating a member of staff."
An Omagh shop is selling 'reflective jackets' for £3.99. Just the thing to go with a thinking cap, for the man who has everything.
The British Home Office has announced that investors will soon be able to buy shares in new prisons, because the Treasury refuses to give any funding for them.
Will the shares be floated on the Nikkei index?
Four BA planes have been scanned for the poisonous chemical Polonium 210. No Ryanair planes. If you want Polonium on a Ryanair flight, you will have to pay for it.
The first floodlit match at Croke Park will be Tyrone versus Dublin. There was a right Donnybrook the last time the two counties met in the National League. Perhaps the night fixture is designed to stop them knocking the daylights out of one another?
