Walt Disney movies through the years
Walt Disney movies formed lasting childhood memories for generations upon generations of people. Walt Disney movies from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through Wall-E have been moral and cinematic touchstones that have consistently been met with both criticial praise and box office success. You could even say that much of the moral fabric of America is tied up in the history of Walt Disney movies.
Just take a look at this list of Walt Disney movies through the years: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938); Pinocchio (1940); Fantasia (1940); Dumbo (1941); Bambi (1942); Cinderella (1950); Alice in Wonderland (1951); Peter Pan (1953); Lady and the Tramp (1955); Sleeping Beauty (1959); 101 Dalmatians (1961); The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977); The Rescuers (1977); The Fox and the Hound (1981); The Little Mermaid (1989); The Rescuers Down Under (1990); Beauty and the Beast (1991); Aladdin (1992); The Lion King (1994).
All of the above Walt Disney movies have contributed to the myth and mystique of Disney animation, and with good cause. They’re all timeless works of art that have made an impact on our greater culture.
A history of Disney’s animation studio can be found at Wikipedia:
Walt Disney began the move into features in 1937, pulling selected animators away from the short subjects division that had previously been the whole of Walt Disney Productions. The result was the first animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White became an unprecedented success when it was released to theatres in February 1938, and it and many of the subsequent feature productions became film classics. These first features were presented as being made in ‘multiplane technicolor’, since both the multiplane camera and technicolor were still something new in the area of animation. Following the successes of these features, Disney expanded his company’s operations, moving into live-action features, television, and theme parks. Beside successes like Snow White, Dumbo, and Cinderella, Disney also directed the Feature Animation staff create experimental and stylized films such as Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio some of which sustained losses and did not recoup their costs until decades after their original releases. In 1962, Walt Disney shut down the corporation’s short subject department, focusing its attention mainly on television and feature film production (the studio would periodically produce featurettes and shorts on a sporadic basis, including films starring Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, and Roger Rabbit).
