Making magic: The phenomenal Disney journey
“Always remember that this whole thing started with a mouse.”–Walt Disney
From mouse to mega global entertainment industry, Disney is the most dazzling parable for the power of imagination. In this first volume of the most comprehensive illustrated Disney publication to date, we chart the empire’s masterworks from the “Golden Age of Animation”, when Walt Disney’s trailblazing vision elevated animation into an art form in its own right.
With unlimited access to the Disney archives and extensive research, the book’s authors have gathered some 1500 images, including concept art, story sketches, backgrounds, and animation drawings as well as many behind-the-scenes photos to trace the origins and evolution of such favorites as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, 101 Dalmatians, and The Jungle Book. Transcripts from Walt’s story development meetings, published here for the first time, reveal his imaginative genius in action and immerse the reader at the very heart of Disney’s remarkable creative hub.
This fascinating archival material covers not only the early Disney classics, but also the experimental short films of the Silly Symphonies and the lesser-known war and propaganda films of the 1940s. Widely neglected musical features such as Make Mine Music and Melody Time are also given extensive coverage. Along the way, we encounter the work of all major Disney illustrators and stylists of the era, including such greats as Ub Iwerks, Albert Hurter, Ferdinand Horvath, Gustaf Tenggren, Kay Nielsen, Carl Barks, Mary Blair, Sylvia Holland, Bianca Marjorie, Tyrus Wong, Ken Anderson, Eyvind Earle, and Walt Peregoy. Special archival finds also bear witness to Disney’s collaboration with leading visual artists of the age, Salvador Dalí and Thomas Hart Benton.
