III.

Feature Films and Theme Parks

Disney acted as the producer and story editor, rather than as an artist, and always pushed to improve the quality of his studio’s animation by hiring and training the most promising talent. The Disney Studio was the first to move into Technicolor production in 1932, and a series of further starring characters, such as Donald Duck, was created. More expansion into feature-length animation followed with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); Pinocchio (1940); Fantasia (1940), an ambitious film that combined groundbreaking animation with classical music; Dumbo (1941); and Bambi (1942); while the merchandising of the Disney cartoon characters made more profits for the studio. After World War II, animated features produced by the Disney Studio included Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), and The Jungle Book (1967), but the number in production decreased, and there was a move into live-action features (Treasure Island, 1950; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954; The Shaggy Dog, 1959; The Absent Minded Professor, 1961; The Love Bug, 1968) and nature documentaries (Seal Island, 1948). (The film Mary Poppins (1964) used an innovative combination of live action with animation.) Disney also started a weekly television programme in 1954, and opened a theme park, Disneyland, near Los Angeles in 1955. Disney World planned by Disney before his death opened in Florida in 1971. All these enterprises were very successful commercially, but the quality of the films declined in the 1970s.