As an Interactive Graphic Designer, I’m always looking for different sources of inspiration. Sometimes it comes from taking an outing to a museum. Recently, I had a chance to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. The exhibits are an intriguing tribute to the achievement of the man’s career. I have always found inspiration in the early full-length animated features Disney created. While I enjoy the films and the stories they tell, I am fascinated by the techniques and ideas that went in to making each film.

The first animated feature film Disney created was in 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was based on the Brothers Grim fairy tale Snow White.

It was the first full-length film to use cel-animation. A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for hand-drawn animation. Generally, the characters are drawn on cels and laid over a static background drawing. The film incorporated other technical firsts.

Snow White was also the first film to feature the multi-plane camera. It was a special motion picture camera used in the animation process that moved a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another, creating a three-dimensional effect. It would later be prominently used in Disney films such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and Peter Pan.

It was also the first full-length animation to be made in Technicolor. Technicolor used a method of making movies in color in which films sensitive to different primary colors are exposed simultaneously and are later superimposed to produce the full-color print. In addition the technical methods, Walt Disney had other ideas that were ahead of their time.

For Snow White, Disney recruited artists from the Choinard Institute to teach first class lessons to the animators. The lessons that were primarily concerned with human anatomy and movement, though instruction later included action analysis, animal anatomy and acting. Because very few of the animators at the Disney studio had artistic training (most had been newspaper cartoonists), live action footage of Snow White, the Princess and the Queen were shot as reference for the animators.

As innovative as it was, Disney had to fight to produce the film. His own wife, Lillian told him: “No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture. Dubbed “Disney’s Folly” by the Hollywood movie industry, Disney had to mortgage his house to help finance the film’s production. The eventual cost a total of almost $1.5 million, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937 to a wildly receptive audience, many of whom were the same naysayers who dubbed the film “Disney’s Folly.” The film received a standing ovation at its completion from a star-studded audience. It also received an honorary Academy Award “as a significant screen innovation which had charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.” Disney received a full-size Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones, presented by then 10-year-old child actress Shirley Temple.

Another inspiring innovation was Disney’s third feature film, 1940’s Fantasia. Fantasia featured animation set to classical music and no dialogue – only spoken introductions by the host, American composer and music critic Deems Taylor, before each segments. The music was recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski and seven of the eight pieces were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Unusual for an American animated film (or any film at the time for that matter), Fantasia had no opening or closing credits in its original version. The film opens with curtains parting to reveal the orchestra entering and taking place. Animated artwork of various degrees of abstraction and literalism were used to illustrate or accompany the concert in various ways.

Fantasia was notable for featuring what were then considered avante-garde qualities and for being the first major film release in stereophonic sound – using a process dubbed “Fantasound”. Not only did Fantasia establish animation as a true art form, it also introduced film audiences to the multi-channel sound, which played an important part in Fantasia.

The film received mixed critical reactions and failed to generate a large commercial audience, leaving Disney in a difficult financial bind. These days, it is seen as “A landmark in animation and a huge influence on the medium of music video, Disney’s Fantasia is [a] relentlessly inventive blend of classics with [dreamlike] images.” Most critics regard the film greatly, particularly the animation work, and as an animated feature film made with an unprecedented level of artistic ambition.

While Walt Disney continued to innovate throughout the span of his lifetime, animation is an enduring pinnacle of his achievements. The techniques and ideas he developed laid the foundation of a genre and generations to come. His legacy, though, is an ability to tell a story and strike a chord in the hearts of all of us.

by Jason Holland, Interactive Graphic Designer