The Animated Man Michael Barrier

8/6/2019 The Animated Man Michael Barrier

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MICRO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR ASSIGNMENT

PARANTHAMAN.V.C11MBA1032



The Animated ManA LIFE OF WALT DISNEY

MICHAEL BARRIER

A Life of Walt Disney by animation historian Michael Barrier. The primary source

of information for Barrier’s was the interview held with over 150 co-workers and

contemporaries of Walt Disney during the period of 1969 nearly two and half years

after the Disney’s death. The result was more critical and somewhat incomplete on

telling the life of Walt’s, that pulls no punches in respecting the imperfection and

complexities of the man who founded an entertainment empire.

The Animated Man is an effort that deserves to be recognized as a valuable and

important contribution to the library of Disney history. This book is important not

just as a biography, but also as a cultural history that provides great insight to one

of the best known creative minds of the twentieth century.

Description

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was one of the most significant creative power of thetwentieth century, a man who made a lasting impact on the art of the animated

film, the history of American business, and the evolution of twentieth-century

American culture. He was both a creative visionary and a dynamic entrepreneur,

roles whose demands he often could not reconcile. Barrier describes the



transformation of Disney himself from Midwestern farm boy to competitive young

businessman to pioneering artist and, irrevocably, to entrepreneur on a grand scale.

introduction The book talks about the biography of Disney from the author’s point of view. In

his book he speaks about Disney’s triumphant and fall. He also takes us through

the creation of Disney movies which earned Walt Disney such a high profile name.

The author had found Disney as always a simple man with loads of ambition and

also as a man with a dedication to his work. As we go along the book, it speaks

about the Disney picture’s success. The ambition behind Disney was to become a

business man for which he had his path paved on the animated movies.

“Its All Me”

As a start of, Walt Disney, created animated movies called the sound cartoons.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was enormously popular which made a mile

stone in the Walt Disney’s history. The money made from this movie was spent on

construction of the Disney studio at Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles. The

business was owned by the two brothers and their wives where Disney had nearly

60% of the share. The money crunch in Walt Disney is named as “Its All Me”, it

was the phrase used by Disney in his pep talk with his workers where in he had a

different thought in his mind. The stumbling and fumbling around of green,

inexperienced people has cost this studio millions of dollars.

The recommended thought for lot of you is this “put your own house in Order”

“put your own mind in order”. You can’t accomplish a curse thing by sittingaround and waiting to be told everything. Too many fellows are willing to blame

their own irresponsibility on other people. Were the words of Disney during hispep talk. These words clearly marked that he had contradictions with his own

decisions, which in turn led him testing the strength of his own.

It was also seen that Disney had a tremendous energy, devoted to animation which

took him to greater heights. He devoted towards his dream, led him to theachievement of constructing the “Theme Park” which is now called as Disney

Land, paradise for children. Disneyland perfectly timed to capture the inclination

of a country newly awash in both children and wealth, and its association with

Disney’s films would give it an emotional resonance that traditional amusement



parks lacked. He had his ideas well paved, which gave him the thought of Disney

Land which earned children attention and also revenue to the park.

Disney Land became the engine for the growth of Disney’s company. This

eventually made Walt Disney’s speech echoing throughout Disney’s company and

also in American’s culture even after decades. Disneyland’s success he identified

the children’s medium was the animation of the char acters and thus made it moredifficult to produce films comparable to those that had made Disney himself

famous.

“The Pet in the Family”

On the Farm and in the City (1901 – 1923)

It tells us about the mark of Disney family from where their journey started. Theirlife started in a farm house, almost a mile from the place called Marceline Depot,

outside the city limits. Elias Disney and Flora Disney parented four children,Herbert, Raymond, Roy, and Walter and Ruth.

From there, they moved to Chicago. Roy remembered their new home as “a very

cute, sweet little farm, if you can describe a farm that way.” “Of course,” Roy said,“it was just heaven for city kids”. Walt Disney had two orchards called as “new

and old”. They had every kind of apples, which they call as Wolf River apples.They were big. People came from miles around to see our orchard. Disney’s

affectionate memories of his childhood on the farm.

“A Cute Idea” The Self-Taught Filmmaker (1923 – 1928)

The ideas and the implementation by Walt Disney and his brother Roy. It is thus

named as “A Cute Idea” wherein it talks about how Disney learned to become afilm maker on his own. He made an attempt to change things in the Disneycartoons and their characters. The first cartoon that Stalling scored in Los Angeles.

“The Skeleton Dance”, the first cartoon in the new music-dominated series calledSilly Symphonies.

To avoid the down fall in market Disney introduced Minnie, a character in Mickey

Mouse play. After which he stated improvising it more and more which led toaddition of many characters to it. Minnie’s character had a importance in the play

after that. Disney dated the start of his career in motion picture. He became a FilmAd employee. He was essentially self taught as an animator. The book was



Animated Cartoons, which thought him “How They Are Made” Their Origin andDevelopment by Edwin G. Lutz.

“You’ve Got to Really Be Minnie” Building a Better Mouse (1928 – 1933)

“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young. I learned a

lot out of that.” Wilfred Jackson said. “He was also not a person to recognize anylimitation as to what could be done. When he thought a piece of action should beextended or shortened somewhat beyond what would fit with some certain part of a

piece of music, he expected his musician to just simply find some way or other toexpand or shorten that part of his music.” He wanted a series which would let us go

in for more of the fantastic and fabulous and lyric stuff. The difference over thecartoons, average run is nothing more or less than Walt’s personality, along withcooperation from his fellows.

“This Character Was a Live Person” The Leap to Feature Films (1934 – 1938)

“Little things that would make a big diff erence” The “big difference” produced bysuch “little things” was to make the animated characters on the screen seem a little

more real. In March 1934, someone who signed himself “an animator” wrote tothe Holly wood Citizen News that, the creation of Mickey, have been largely the



use of his ability in the fields of production, business, publicity and direction as a

achievement. “Snow White” seems clumsy now. The film made an impression onDisney for more than one reason. Three Little Pigs and The Flying Mouse were yet

to be released.

“A Drawing Factory” Ambition’s Price (1938 – 1941)

The Snow White contract gave Disney 75 percent of domestic revenues and

smaller but still very high percentages of foreign revenues. The origins of DonaldDuck added more revenue to Disney company. In other words, he saw no real

distinction between himself and his studio, even though it had grown to around 675employees by February 1938, shortly after Snow White was released. He had nocontrol over the several features. He could not give attention as given to snow

white. Disney scorned the idea of sharing ownership through a public sale of stock.

Some artists had trouble adjusting to life in the “drawing factory.” He insisted thathis employees must accept responsibility for the future of a business over which hehad exercised complete control since 1923.Disney him self meant that he has to

hold the negative cost of new features. The break up between Disney land andDisney production has taken place , which made him to concentrate more on the

Disney land creation.



“He Was Interested in Something Else” Escaping from Film (1953 – 1959)

For years, Disney had been visiting amusement parks and other attractions in theUnited States and Europe with at least half an eye toward what he could learn that

would be useful in a park of his own , by looking around rides of other small parks.He decided to add the Disney characters , bright lights, variety of restaurant , E

ticketing and water rides. There were made on the Riverside Drive to pack as manyattraction as possible in to the small area.

“Where I Am Happy ” Restless in the Magic Kingdom

The idea of Disneyland is a simple one. It will be a place for people to find

happiness and knowledge. It will be a place for parents and children to sharepleasant times in one another’s company, a place for teacher and pupils to discover

greater ways of understanding and education. Were younger generation can savorthe challenge of the future. Here will be the wonders of Nature and Man for all to

see and understand.

“He Drove Himself Right Up to the End” Dreaming of a Nightmare City(1965 – 1966)

Even before Disneyland opened, Walt Disney identified Florida as the only

possible location for a second version of the park. “The Economic Setting of theCity of Tomorrow” in all phases of the town development. Disney thinks the way



city of tomorrow. He advanced the concepts of architectural design andtechnological improvement. The Disney development itself would be the majorattraction at Mineral King. The distinction between “entertainment” and

“recreation” was much more significant than Disney thought, at least in this case.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, The Animated Man feels incomplete and just a bit jaded towards WaltDisney. He is so far the best critical study to date of Walt Disney and his worlds:

corporate, personal, ideological, architectural. He is more said to be a good

entrepreneur with lots of animated ideas building out from Disney. The conceptused to take over the attention of both the tourist and visitors gave moreeconomical calculation on city of tomorrow. The challenges he faced in day to day

life made me to keep in constant touch with the book and gain the learning experience.

Documents

The Animated Man Michael Barrier