Walt Disney

Children's Literature

A short, but interesting biographical sketch of Walt Disney, this volume includes anecdotes from his early years. For example, when six-year old Walt wants to sketch the family pig but can find no drawing materials, he draws the animal on the side of his family's farmhouse with a brush dipped in tar. As a young man, Disney is hired to produce commercials. Eventually he sets up his own company and produces cartoons, known as the Alice series that combine a human actress interacting with cartoon animals. By 1927, Disney has made nearly sixty Alice shorts, but he wants to make all-cartoon films. At this time the first movies with sound are just being made, and Disney produces the short film, Steamboat Willie, featuring a character named Mickey Mouse. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs becomes Disney's first full-length animated feature. Convinced that the small screen of television didn't suit his high-quality films, Disney ignores the medium's arrival. However, needing funding to finance his latest project, a theme park in California called Disneyland, he struck a deal with the ABC television network. The resulting legacy of this partnership forever changes the entertainment industry. As with other volumes in the KidHaven Press "Inventors and Creators" series, there is not a lot of original material, but the book does provide a good starting place for further investigation. 2003, KidHaven Press,
— Linda Ruble