Disney's Argumentative Essay

With the completion of Disney Studios in Burbank, California, Disney started moving his staff to the new campus. At the new studio, there was a rigid hierarchy system in place where top writers and animators were very obviously received better treatment and benefits. In 1940, due to the box office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia, Disney was forced to make layoffs. By this time the Disney studio payment structure had become very disorganized with high ranking animators making as much as three hundred dollars a week while low ranking employees made as little as twelve dollars. Many of the employees saw the injustice and went on strike in 1941. The studio took almost ten years to fully recover. During this time Disney created a string of shorts,

none successful. The next full length film Disney produced did not come out until 1950, Cinderella; which was the studio’s first commercial success. Following the release of Cinderella, famed British cartoonist, David Low called Disney “the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo [Da Vinci].”
Even after Disney’s wild success, he was a very humble, down to earth man. Walt was not a typical Hollywood Mogul, instead of socializing with the “who’s who” of Hollywood, he stayed home to have dinner with his wife, Lillian, and daughters, Diane and Sharon. He was very connected to his family. His daughter Diane once said” ‘Daddy never missed a father’s function no matter how I discounted it. I’d say ‘Oh daddy, you don’t need to come. It’s some stupid thing.’ But he’d always be there, on time.” Those closest to him said that the death of his mother showed Walt just how important family is. In 1938 Walt bought his parents a new home closer to his new Burbank studio. A month later his mother, Flora, died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. Guilt haunted Walt for the rest of his life, but the incident showed him that family is the most important thing in his life. It has been rumored that the death of his own mother is why characters in Disney’s movies never had mothers.
Deep into his career, Walt conceived an idea of a new school for nurturing future generations of creative talent, a “community of the arts.” Walt wanted the school to be a place of artistic growth and inspiration, a place where young artists could collaborate to spark new ideas and methods.

His dream became a reality in 1961 when Walt and brother Roy formed the California Institute of the Arts through the merger of two existing art and music schools: LA Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute. Walt believed in the school and how it could shape artists, saying: “CalArts is the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something.” CalArts quickly became the most prestigious art school in the United States, and was the first degree-granting institution of higher learning specifically for visual and performing arts

students.
Near the end of Walt’s life, he started to think about the legacy he would leave behind. He turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life. Walt’s original vision was for a model community which would have been home to twenty thousand residents and a test for city planning and organization. This model became a sort of “utopian society”, exhibiting futuristic characteristics and ways of living. Walt thought his vision would be immensely important to the future world, saying: “I don’t believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin?… We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future,” which is exactly what he did. In 1965 Disney bought 93 square miles - twice the size of Manhattan- in the center of Florida. he planned a new “Disney World” of entertainment. This was after Disneyland opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California. His first theme park was incredibly successful, but he was not fulfilled. Disney himself personally directed the design and creation of the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow- EPCOT. After seven years and fifty two months of construction, Walt Disney World opened on October first, 1971 and the EPCOT center opened on October first, 1982; six years after his death.
Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and passed away from lung cancer on December fifteenth, 1966.

Before his death he was given honorary degrees from Harvard University, Yale University, University of Southern California, and University of California Los Angeles. He was awarded many prestigious awards through his life and after his death, such as: The Presidential Medal of Freedom, France’s Legion of Honor, Thailand’s Order of the Crown, Brazil’s Order of the Southern Cross, and the Showman of the World Award; as well as many others. He continued to make an impact even after his death through his movies, and his legacy lives

on.
Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the twentieth century. His popularity was based on the ideas that his name represents: imagination, optimism, and self made success. This man did what many believed was impossible, but with joy, optimism, and a whole lot of courage, Walt Disney was able to become the most famous animator the world has ever seen. After all, it was he himself who said: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”