Walt Disney Biography

Throughout history, there have been many notable American figures that had enormous impacts on almost everyone's daily lives. Although, one figure stands out among many, and that man worked his hardest to make his dreams come true, Walt Disney. Disney made a reputation of brilliance and "[t]he combination of Disney's desire to try new techniques and his striving to make a better product set him apart from most other animators" (Nardo 25). How could anyone forget classics like Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fox and the Hound, the Little Mermaid, and many more all created by Disney? "He created a cast of memorable animated and live-action characters that have been forever associated with the Disney name" (Nardo 10). Though many do not know Disney was forced into bankruptcy many times to create these characters. To fulfill his childhood dreams, Walt Disney revolutionized the entertainment industry by adding realistic elements to his numerous cartoons, movies, and vacation spots. Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in a house in Chicago. A few years later, in 1906, Disney's father decided to move the family to a less populated farmland in Marceline, Missouri:
His family made the move to Marceline when Walt was quite young, and the boy got acquainted with the animals on the farm and took to drawing them along the margins of his schoolbooks, flipping the pages so rapidly the figures seemed to move. ("Disney," Current: 1940 246)
Life on the farm began to influence Disney's life greatly. "As Walt grew up, he remembered his youthful days spent observing, working with, and playing with barnyard animals" (Nardo 13). The animals Disney encountered were soon drawn into his art works where they were later drawn into his cartoons through memories with different personalities. Continuing his passions, "he became more serious about drawing, and he enrolled in a class at the Kansas City Art Institute when he was fourteen" (Maltin 1).