Walt Disney grew up hoping he would be able to help people to not be sad but to feel happy all the time. That is a reason why he created Mickey Mouse and all the other characters that everyone knows and loves today. Disney did truly change the world and America, whether it is bad or good, and helped teach everyone that the greatest minds do not always start out with easy lives. The first thing we think about when we think of Disney, is Mickey Mouse. In 1928, “Steamboat Willie” was Mickey’s biggest appearance.
Mickey Rooney and Disney’s wife, Lillian, both take tribute to Mickey’s name. At first it was Mortimer, but Lillian thought it was too stuck up. Rooney thought it was him because he met Disney shortly before the creation of the mouse. Mickey Mouse is the biggest thing in entertainment all around the world, especially America. People vote for him in some local elections and he was the top most common person to be voted for in November 2014. Cohort Donald Duck is right under Mickey. In 1987, Georgia made a law to where people can not vote for Mickey and Wisconsin is too soon (Ulster).
That just says how much people love him; they love him enough to vote for him. Disney had another animation and his name was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit because Charles Mintz, the film producer, wanted it. The character’s face looked fairly like Mickey’s but the other things were different. Universal owns Oswald because Mintz took him and kept him to himself. Then, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks started thinking of new characters due to the incident and created Mickey. Mickey became famous in “Steamboat Willie” but he was not all popular until then. Steamboat Willie” was The Jazz Singer of animation.
After this, Mickey became a big trend. “His (Disney) cartoons ran before the main features in movie theatres and he became so popular that moviegoers would sit through a movie twice to see him again, or would check before buying their tickets to make sure that ‘a Mickey’ was going to play at the beginning. ” Mickey never actually said words until 1929’s The Karnival Kid. “Hot dogs! Hot dogs! ,” was the iconic saying from Mickey. Walt Disney used to be Mickey Mouse’s voice but stopped in 1946 because he was too busy (Ulster).
On the show that many younger kids watch today called, “Mickey mouse Clubhouse”, Mickey’s signature words are “Hot dog! ” “The Mickey Mouse Club” was made in January of 1930. It became a big ordeal after a while. In 1950, it made its first appearance on television. Celebrities were on the show as kids such as: Dennis Day, Annette Funicello, Don Grady, Ken Russell, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake. In 1932, Disney won an Oscar from Mickey. After that, he ended up winning many more awards.
Over in Germany, Art Spiegelman made a spin-off Mickey named “Maus. “Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed… Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal… Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross! ” (Ulster). This quote means that the Germans did not really like Mickey so they told people he was bad and gross and not to be looked upon. Mickey was helpful during WW2. The war he helped most in was D-Day.
Mouse’s alias was a code for The Allied Forces (Ulster). In 1935, Mickey got “re-made” by Fred Moore, the animator. In 1940’s Fantasia, Mickey was first seen with all his updates. Now, Disney Studios have famous movies such as: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Frozen, The Princess and the Frog, and others. Even with all these other characters, Mickey is still the accredited sign of Disney. “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing that it was all started by a mouse,” – Walt Disney (Ulster). Before all this fame and fortune, Disney had a troublesome life.
After Walt came up with Mickey, he came up with the idea of Disneyland and Disney World. Disney has been said to be a big inspiration to many people everywhere. The Disney emblem makes $22 billion because it is so famous (Schnickel). The concept of Disney being the happiest person ever is not all right because he was only happy because he wanted everyone else to feel as cheerful as ever. “I don’t have depressed moods. I’m happy, just very, very happy. ” Disney was born into a poor family on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois.
His family did not prosper when it came to making money because his father, Elias, was always looking for a good, stable job. Because of his hard life, Walt ended up running away from home at age 16. He associated himself with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during WW1. He joined only to bring happiness to others during the tough time so people would not have to feel the way he felt when living at home. His father never showed his love to his kids so that made all the Disney children want to leave as soon as they could. After the war, Walt started drawing in Kansas City, Missouri.
His drawing helped him escape his depression. Sadly, the drawings did not prosper at first so he had to survive off of canned food and rest at his work and he soon moved to Los Angeles and worked with his prosperous brother, Roy. When Oswald was stolen from Disney, it helped the Mickey franchise tremendously (Ulster). After Walt became famous from movies and shows, he thought of the idea of Disneyland. Tony Hicks and Chuck Barney went to Disneyland for the first time as adults and they said it was the best time of their lives because there is not just kiddie attractions but also adult attractions (Hicks & Barney).
As a parent, it is probably hard to keep up with children as they want to rush to every ride but not want to wait in line, so parents’ can get FastPasses, which allow riders to the front of the line. That is fun for the kids and easier on the parents but the attractions for adults are as followed: Main Street, U. S. A. , which is just a road of restaurants and shops, The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, a simple water ride in which riders experience the movie in real life. The places adults can go to relax are: New Orleans Square, the Blue Bayou, Wine Country Trattoria in California Adventure, and ESPN Zone Z.
There is also a three hour walk you can take around Magic Kingdom called, “In Walt’s Footsteps”, Club 33 is also a club for adults to get away but you have to be a certain person to be able to get in there and it is located in New Orleans Square (Hicks & Barney). The “adult” rides are the California Screamin’ roller coaster, The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror, Soarin’ Over California, and more. The Soarin’ Over California is a ride that makes the rider feel like they are hang gliding over Yosemite, Monterey, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, and Napa Valley (Hicks & Barney).
By the time the whole family has rode all the rides of their choice, the adults that went and did all the “adult stuff” will begin to miss their little babies and might end the night with a family ride at the teacups or watch a big light and firework show (Hicks & Barney). One other thing that the Disney franchise is known for is gender stereotyping. Most girls go through the “princess phase” when they are younger. The phase is cute and innocent but can lead to terrible things later in life.
When people think of a princess they think of girls, pink, dresses, and happily ever afters but that is not how it should be in day of age because of all the gender equality stuff now (Johnson). Disney came out with the film, “The Princess and the Frog,” which had an African-American girl as the main character which is not bad but since it was only a girl that was the main character, the African-American boys felt left out. There was a black prince involved but he was a green frog for the majority of the movie and anyone who is green would feel appreciated but no one is green.
The Disney need to make a movie featuring a gender equal setting along with no stereotypes of any kind (Johnson). The movies have also been bad to rich and poor girls. Snow White from, was born into royalty which caused some not so rich girls to feel bad about their family not being rich. Cinderella, made rich girls feel bad because they felt bad for the girls who did not have the money they have (Johnson). Mulan and Pocahontas were good role models because they are Asian and Native American but they did not help the ethnic boys because the movies were mainly about girls.
Also, they were not good models of princesses because they do a lot of manly things such as going to war and fighting for families and they do not look like the regular princesses because they do not wear the casual brightly colored dress. The media has noted them as, “too realistic for kids,” (Johnson). Disney makes bank off of the princess franchise but it also makes the girls feel bad about themselves because they feel the need to always have princess stuff or be dressed like a princess to be liked.
The princesses are usually on girl items but people never see princes on boy items and people never see princesses being played as princes or vice versa. This is because kids grew up knowing they could not switch gender roles. The article titled, “Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts Through Disney Princess Play,” by Karen Wohlwend, states that kids dislike when “princes are turned into princesses. ” Lyn Mikel Brown stated in her co – written article, Packaging Girlhood, “When one thing is so dominant, then it’s no longer a choice; it’s a mandate, cannibalizing all other forms of play.
There’s the illusion of more choices out there for girls, but if you look around, you’ll see their choices are steadily narrowing. ”The co – author of Packaging Girlhood, Sharon Lamb says, “There’s a trap at the end of that rainbow, because the natural progression from pale, innocent pink is not to other colors. It’s to hot, sexy pink – exactly the kind of sexualization parents are trying to avoid,”(Johnson). People usually never see princes on boy merchandise. The reason why is because Disney studios think that the movies should only have girl role models. In order to find good roles for kids the media says they should watch anime.
Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro” are good examples for role models for kids because it teaches them that they do not have to be royal to be liked (Johnson). Suggestions to ask kids about Disney to see if they really like it just for fun are: “Do you think you can really change an angry person into a nice person, like Belle does to the Beast? Is it worth it to give up your voice and your family for a boy, the way Ariel does? If Mulan spends most of her movie dressed as a boy, why is she in girls’ clothes on the merchandising? Why do you think Disney changed the title of “Rapunzel? When asking these, the parent should not be very assertive but calm and accepting.
Help children to understand that it is okay to be different and to not be something unrealistic (Johnson). Disney has helped America through some tough times but has also hurt some people along the way to publicity. The background of Mickey and Walt help the reader understand how and why it all started and the grown men going to Disneyland helped see that people do not have to be young to be able to enjoy it and, finally, the gender inequality and stereotypes of princesses have shown the hurtful side of Disney.