THe original name for Mickey was Mortimer Mouse. Walt's wife, Lillian, thought it sounded too stuffy and pretentious and suggested Mickey.
Other Dis factoids:
The sound heard on Steamboat was provided by a new technology called Cinephone, which had optical impulses printed in the margin of the film. They were read by a sound head on the projector. The first crude digital sound! RCA had begged Walt to wait for their version, but after Walt heard a demo he declared it "just a bunch of noise!"
Walt was insistant on the stretch and bend style of the Steamboat animation as he felt it was the future. Cartoons of the day were very rigid and one dimentional. He eventually designed the multi-plane camera that had several background details painted on clear plates at diferent distances from the camera. Panning or moving closer achieved Walt's desired 3D effect.
Willie debuted on Nov. 18, 1928. Snow White debuted on Dec. 21 1937. So there were only 9 yrs separating the crude beginnings to what Walt considered the best animation his company had ever produced. Snow White cost $2.3 Million - a staggering amount back then. As the costs kept going up with no end in sight, Bank of America (who Dis borrowed the money from) sent a young manager to determine how risky their "investment" was. Walt grudgingly screened a portion for him that was not yet complete with backgrounds and color. The guy never said a word and Walt followed him out to his car. As he drove off, he said, "You are going to make a ton of money with that cartoon." He never had an issue with BOA afterward - on that feature...
Walt was never satisfied with the final version of Snow White, even though he thought it was the studio's best work. He thought all the animated features that followed were garbage, although he knew the studio could never afford, or have the time, or resources, to do another animated feature up to his standards.
When the orchestra had problems syncing with the animation requirements of Fantasia, a whole group of engineers and animators worked for weeks to solve the problem. Using everything from hand signals to storyboard cues, nothing worked. Confronting Walt with the problem, he thought for a minute and told them to "just give the conductor a click track in his ear - now get back to work!"
Walt wanted a true symphonic experience for Fantasia and approached RCA several times to build a surround sound system to Walt's exact specifications (this was 1940!). Finally they agreed to build a 6 track "Fantasound" at a cost of $200,000 each. Each system took a crew 2 weeks working 24/7 to install in each designated theater.
Disney was on the verge of bankruptcy several times after Snow White. Any failure would have tanked the company. Only after Disneyland opened, was the studio able to pay off the banks and turn a steady profit.
Walt was adamant about getting on TV. He wanted to initially use it to advertise Disneyland. He also insisted that everything they did for TV was in color.
Deep down Walt always wanted to make movies. In later years he lost all interest in the animation side of the company.
There is example after example of Walt's incredible problem solving skills over the years. Teams of "Imagineers", animators, writers, producers, musicians, (later on during the construction of Disneyland and the planning of Disney World) - architects, structural engineers, electrical engineers, the list goes on and on... They would come to him claiming that there was no way they could fulfill his requests. Walt would have an immediate answer to solve the problem, make a quick sketch, or give them another direction to pursue that was never considered. He was a slave driver, but obviously a brilliant, driven soul.
One of my heroes.
Jim
Topic: Steamboat Willie 1928 Before Mickey was Preppy.. :D (Read 8023 times)