Comm. 3850
Walt Disney:
The Nexus of Communication and Imagination
Summer 2016 Schedule
June 3
Introduction and Course Overview. Walt’s childhood years.
Iwerks/Disney. View and discuss the documentary How Cartoons are
Made and the first popular cartoon character Felix the Cat. The
Kansas City Slide Co., Walt’s first company: Laugh-O-Grams, Walt’s first
animated/live action short: Alice’s Wonderland. Walt fails in K.C. Walt
goes to Hollywood. The first woman distributor, Margaret Winkler picks
up Walt’s first animated series: The Alice Comedies. The Disney
Brothers Company becomes The Walt Disney Studio. Walt gets married.
View and discuss The Alice Comedies.
June 4
Walt creates his first animated character: Oswald Rabbit and it’s stolen
from him, Mickey Mouse is born on a train, Steamboat Willie becomes the
first sound cartoon. The Silly Symphonies are born with The Skeleton
Dance. There is a rebellion at the studio, Iwerks leaves Disney. View
and discuss Mickey Mouse in Black and White and the Skeleton Dance.
In-class project.
Merchandising Mickey Mouse. Disney signs with Columbia Pictures. The
Hyperion Ave. studio grows. Walt suffers a nervous breakdown. Disney
moves to United Artists with the help of his hero Charlie Chaplin. Walt
works to maintain quality with little money. Flowers and Tress becomes
the first color cartoon. View and discuss Flowers and Trees.
The Three Little Pigs becomes a phenomenon and has special meaning
during the Depression. Mickey Mouse has an identity crisis. Donald
Duck is born, develops, and becomes a star. The studio signs with RKO.
View and discuss The Three Little Pigs and Donald Duck.
June 10
Walt’s new passion becomes making the first feature-length animates film
(referred to by some as “Disney’s folly”). The studio struggles under the
strain of producing shorts and a feature. Walt develops the Multi-plane
camera to create a sense of depth in animation. Snow White is released
and makes history as it captivates audiences around the world. View and
discuss A Trip Through the Disney Studio and Snow White and The
Seven Dwarfs. There is a great deal of analysis nationwide concerning the
success of Snow White. The studio moves to Burbank, CA. Walt’s new
passion becomes the Concert Feature (Fantasia). Walt is devastated by
his mother’s accidental death. Walt creates an art school at the studio. As
Fantasia moves very slowly, Pinocchio goes into production. Walt is
faced with new financial problems at the studio. View and discuss The
Plausible Impossible.
June 11
Pinocchio opens to less than favorable reviews and loses money.
Production on Bambi begins with a focus on realism. The studio grows to
1500 artists. Walt’s passion is centered on Fantasia leaving Pinocchio
and Bambi without his energy. Dumbo goes into production and the
animation is simplified to speed it up. Discuss films that show the world
the way we want it to be versus films that show the world the way it really
is. View and discuss Pinocchio.
Fantasia opens (1940) to critical acclaim but it loses money. With the
studio under tremendous financial strain, a film that can be made quickly
is needed. The Reluctant Dragon, a primarily live-action film goes into
production. View and discuss Fantasia and The Reluctant Dragon.
June 17
The union movement in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s comes to the
studio. The studio is split in two with over half the animators on strike.
Walt is asked by Nelson Rockefeller to travel to South America to
promote U.S.- Latin American relations. The strike ends but the studio is
never the same. Dumbo is released to good reviews that feel Disney has
returned to what they do best and excellent box office returns. View and
discuss Dumbo.
The studio goes to war. Mickey and Donald help sell war bonds. The
studio begins making training films for the military. Saludos Amigos is
released in South America and is a huge hit. Bambi is finally released but
is criticized for being too realistic and it loses money at the box office.
Walt teams up with Alexander de Seversky to make a film that may have
affected the outcome of WWII. View and discuss Walt and El Grupo,
Four Methods of Flush Riveting and Victory Through Air Power.
June 18
No Class.
June 24
The Three Caballeros is released in South America and is even bigger
than Saludos Amigos. Snow White is re-released with good success. Song
of The South causes a racial controversy. A new genre The True-Life
Adventure nature documentary is created (Seal Island). Walt testifies at
the HUAC hearings that Communists were involved in the studio strike.
View and discuss Seal Island.
Treasure Island becomes the first all live-action Disney film but has to be
made in England. Cinderella is released and saves the studio. Walt
dreams up the idea of Disneyland but doesn’t have the money to build it.
Walt partners up with ABC to produce a TV series called Disneyland in
exchange for financing for the park. View and discuss the TV show
Disneyland.
June 25
Construction on Disneyland begins as many say it will not last one year.
W.E.D. Enterprises is formed and will become the “Imagineering” team.
The TV series is a huge hit and also builds tremendous interest and
anticipation for the park. July 17, 1955 Disneyland opens to huge crowds
all summer. Davey Crockett becomes a huge national phenomenon. The
studio takes the final step of distributing its own films. View and discuss
Davey Crockett, Disneyland Under Construction, Zorro, Pollyanna and
Mary Poppins.
Disney leaves ABC to join NBC in color and the show becomes Walt
Disney Presents: The Wonderful World of Color to help RCA sell color
TVs. Disney plans pavilions for 1964 World’s Fair as a way to finance
the R&D for “audio animatronics” at Disneyland. Walt builds The
CalArts School of Fine Arts. Disney World and EPCOT planning begins.
Walt becomes ill and will never step foot in Disney World. View and
discuss Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic and Disneyland Goes to
The World’s Fair. Assignment #2 due
Assignment #1 and Final Exam – Take Home and due June 30, 5PM.
Comm. 3850
Walt Disney:
The Nexus of Communication and Imagination
Syllabus
Prof. David Nelson 255-4129 ACAD 516 drnelson@uccs.edu
Friday June 3, 10, 17, 24 1PM – 5:25 PM and
Saturday June 4, 11, 25 8:30 AM – 5:25 PM,
This Class will examine the life of one of the most iconic and influential
people in American popular culture. We will examine the psychological,
cultural, economic, and social forces that influenced Walt Disney and his art,
and finally led to the brand name known as Disney. The class will also
examine Walt Disney’s ability to imagine new genres of popular
entertainment and see them through to realization despite repeated industry
consensus that he would fail. We will study the union movement in
Hollywood and its effect on the Walt Disney Studio. In addition we will
study Walt Disney’s invaluable contributions to the war effort. The class
will study the societal concept of “wish fulfillment” and how Walt Disney
connected to people through this concept. We will attempt to learn more
about ourselves as members of American culture through the study of the
man, who to many, came to represent American Culture in the 20th Century.
Students will learn:
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About Walt’s childhood and early successes and failures.
How he reinvented animation as an art form that emphasized character, narration,
and emotion rather than movement and elasticity.
How he changed pop art by combining lowbrow and highbrow art in films such as
Fantasia.
About storyboards and their creation by Walt.
How Walt created a sense of depth in a two dimensional medium.
How he reconceptualized the amusement park into a story telling theme park.
The dichotomy of his nostalgic representations of American life and his
fascination with technology and the future.
About Disney’s creation of the Wildlife Documentary.
How and why Walt was the first film studio head to embrace TV.
About his detractors and the “Disneyfication” of culture.
Of his involvement in the HUAC hearings on Communist influence in
Hollywood.
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About Disney’s influence on the counter-culture of the 1960s when they were
children in the 1950s.
How Walt Disney came to define wish fulfillment and empowerment through
fantasy.
ASSIGNMENTS:
#1) Students will keep a journal about the things they learn in class, read about in the
book, the films viewed in class, and the discussions that take place in class. The journal
should contain their thoughts, ideas, and feelings about the material covered and viewed.
The journal may contain creative work including drawings, stories, and ideas triggered by
any aspect of the class. The entries should clearly communicate their thoughts and
contain some analysis of the material covered in class. There should be at least one
unique entry for each day of class including one for the last day.
Evaluation Criteria: Journal entries will be graded on thoroughness of their discussion
and/or analysis of the material covered in class that day including lecture and screened
material. Creative entries will be graded on the basis of their creativity and effort. All
entries will be graded on the student’s ability to communicate their thoughts, ideas,
feelings, and opinions in clear written form.
#2) Students will write a 3 – 5 page research paper discussing the work of one of
Disney’s “nine old men” animators including specific examples of film sequences and
shorts.
Evaluation Criteria: This paper will be graded on the thoroughness of the research and
the presentation of that research in a clear and organized manner. Once again, grammar,
sentence structure and paragraph organization will be considered in the grading.
EVALUATION: Students’ grades will be determined by 1) Assignment #1 (40%).
Assignment #2 (10%). 2) The final exam (essay format) (30%). 3) And participation
in class (20%).
RECOMMENDED TEXT: Walt Disney: The Triumph of The American
Imagination, Neal Gabler, Knopf Publishing, New York NY, 2006.
Additional Recommended Reading (in the Kramer Family Library data
base): Mouse and Man, Time Magazine, December 27, 1937.
Course content and schedule may change without notice.