35 pages • 1-hour read
Who Was Walt Disney
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Themes
Innovation as a Driver of Success
Walt Disney is widely recognized as a pioneer of the animation industry, responsible for three major breakthroughs in traditional animation: the synching of sound, the introduction of color, and the lengthening of cartoons to accommodate emotionally complex storytelling.
The first film with sound released in 1927, and barely a year later, Walt Disney Studios released the first Mickey Mouse short using this brand-new technology. Steamboat Willie was a tremendous success and the first step in making Mickey Mouse internationally famous. This early success established the Walt Disney brand as synonymous with novelty, as audiences sought out Disney productions not just for the stories and characters but also for the chance to see something that no one had seen before. In the book’s portrayal, this pursuit of the new is the single most defining feature of Walt’s career.
Because he was continually in pursuit of new things, Walt could never allow himself to rely on past successes. Even when a Disney character gained popularity, he was always chasing the next big thing. After incorporating sound, he knew that adding color would be the next big leap. As soon as he learned that a company called Technicolor was developing a technology that would add colors to films, he partnered with them to create colorized cartoons. He soon released Flowers and Trees, one of the first animated films to feature color, which won an Academy Award for its beauty, vibrancy, and novelty.
The next innovation that Walt chased was less technological but equally important: He wanted to extend the length of cartoons. They were previously all very short, lasting only a few minutes, because making them took a lot of work; every frame needed to be drawn and colored by hand. Walt felt that this limited the stories that animated films could tell and made them less memorable.
Walt took a big risk in making Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first feature-length animated film. The animation took three years to complete, and Walt had to borrow a huge sum of money. Nevertheless, this was the next innovation: It awed his audience and made Snow White one of the highest grossing and most internationally recognizable animated stories of all time. It is now industry standard for animations to have memorable plots.
Who Was Walt Disney? emphasizes Walt’s skill at thinking ahead and his pursuit of new industry standards. More than his storytelling, the book argues that it was his forward thinking that made him one of the greatest pioneers of his field.
The Importance of Resilience in Overcoming Setbacks
Before the success of Walt Disney Studios, Walt failed several times to start a business, but Stewart emphasizes that he never gave up chasing his vision and believing in his talent. The story that Stewart tells is one of resilience in the face of challenges, as Walt rose back up after each failure until he was rewarded with success.
Walt and his friend Ub tried twice to start a studio of their own and failed both times. The first time, they had no prior working experience in the art industry and could not find enough clients. The second time, they had already gained experience working at the Kansas City Slide Company, but their ambitions exceeded their marketing skills, and they could not find enough work to stay afloat. They had to sell all their equipment to pay back their debts.
However, Walt had learned from a young age to be resilient. As a child, he woke before the sun rose to work as a newspaper delivery boy to help his father support their family. Stewart presents this childhood paper route as an origin story explaining Walt’s entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic, suggesting a continuity between this early experience and his later devotion to the Disney Brothers Studio he founded in California, where he worked long hours to complete his first paid projects, including Alice’s Wonderland. Walt often worked late into the night to perfect everything and meet his tight deadlines.
Even after enjoying success with his character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt still encountered more roadblocks. This first hit character was bought away by his distributor, leaving Walt without the rights to make more cartoons starring Oswald. This was a heavy loss, but Walt did not see it as an ultimate defeat: He saw it as an opportunity to learn and make an even bigger success.
Losing Oswald allowed Walt to create Mickey, and the experience taught him to be extra cautious not to lose Mickey to another distributor. From his mistake with Oswald, Walt learned to make an even greater success. It was this resilience that allowed him to always aim higher over the course of his career.
Extending Storytelling Beyond the Screen
Walt built an entertainment empire in his lifetime. Around the world, children and adults alike recognize Disney characters, sing their theme songs, and even dress up as them for Halloween, fueling their fandom with an endless array of Disney-branded merchandise that touches nearly every facet of daily life.
This was not achieved by simply making memorable cartoons. Walt’s greatest entrepreneurial success was breathing life into his characters and their worlds beyond the screen. Stewart tells of several instances when Walt recognized an opportunity to extend the reach of his intellectual property into yet another new domain.
Walt’s idea to combine real actors with animation in Alice’s Wonderland—something entirely new for his time period—set the stage for later business innovations, as it encouraged viewers to see his animated characters as existing in the real world. Stewart presents this innovation as a point of departure for Disney’s later forays into theme parks and branded merchandise, as it enacted the idea that Disney characters’ lives might extend beyond the animated worlds in which they were first introduced.
The first true instance of Walt building his brand outside of the movies was the establishment of Mickey Mouse Clubs. Although not originally his idea, Walt immediately saw this as a great business opportunity: By encouraging kids to get together and talk about Disney cartoons, the Mickey Mouse Clubs fostered a personal connection between audiences and characters that extended beyond the theater. The Disney magic would continue to exist whenever young fans gathered together.
The second instance was Walt’s idea of building Disneyland, an amusement park where Disney characters would come to life and young children would be able to meet their favorite cartoon heroes. Disney encouraged not only kids but also their parents to view the theme park as a magical place, blurring the line between real and imagined worlds. Children who visited the park could also purchase Disney-themed products to bring home, reminding them of their favorite characters even when they were not watching their shows. Similar branded products would soon become available in stores all over the world, extending the Disney universe into every facet of life.
Walt is recognized as a pioneer in the animation industry for constantly chasing new technologies. However, Stewart argues that his most significant innovation was to extend the lives of his characters beyond the screen.
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