A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 8, Walt and the Natural World
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 8: Walt and the Natural World
Walt — who had a love of nature since his youth in Marceline — also ventured into live-action documentaries during the ‘40s and early ‘50s. The first of these was a nature documentary, Seal Island, a 27-minute account of the seasonal habits of seals that won the 1949 Academy Award™ for best two-reel documentary. Later documentaries in the series, “TrueLife Adventures” continued to focus on nature, while “People and Places” highlighted peoples and destinations around the world.
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 7, Post-War Rebuilding: Mid-‘40s to the early 1950s
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 7: Post-War Rebuilding: Mid-‘40s to the early 1950s
With the end of the war, Walt and Roy found inventive new outlets for animation and ventured into live-action production. They developed new package films for theaters that combined shorts and feature-length animated films, as well as movies that combined live action and animation. In addition, the Studio produced the enormously successful Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp, the studio’s first wide-screen animated feature. Disney also produced his first live-action features, including Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 6, the Late ’30s – ’40s
Continuing our series into the galleries at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, we are pleased to present to you some of the artifacts that can be found in Gallery 6: TheLate ’30s – ’40s
This difficult period in Walt’s life included the deaths of his parents, a studio strike that threatened the company’s viability, and a period when the U.S. military used part of the studio as a base. The company released Dumbo and produced training films for the military, public service shorts, and morale- boosting films, and Walt embarked on a goodwill tour of South America to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Latin American countries. He later produced two Latin American-themed animated movies based on the trip.
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 5, New Success and Greater Ambitions
Continuing in our series of exploring the Walt Disney Family Museum, set to open on October 1, we are pleased to bring you a look at Gallery 5: New Success and Greater Ambitions
The worldwide success of Snow White let Disney Studios create new studio buildings in Burbank, CA, and produce even more ambitious features, such as Bambi, Pinocchio and Fantasia. The last film featured classical music and an orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Although well
regarded by critics, none of the films was immediately financially successful, in part because overseas revenues were affected by World War II.
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum: Gallery 4, the First Animated Motion Picture
Continuing our series into the galleries at the new Walt Disney Family Museum, we are pleased to present to you some of the artifacts that can be found in Gallery 4: The Move to Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
A Sneak Peek at the Walt Disney Family Museum, Gallery 3: The Emergence of the Walt Disney Studio
Galleries 3 New Horizons: The Emergence of the Walt Disney Studio (1928 to 1940)
The success of Mickey Mouse let Walt Disney expand the newly renamed Walt Disney Studios and improve the quality of Studio animations, so he embarked on a series of ambitious projects, including the “Silly Symphonies,” one-reel shorts that let him experiment with images, music, and story lines. In the following years, the Studio created the first Technicolor cartoons, introduced a multiplane camera to create the illusion of depth in animated films, and developed distinctive styles of movement and personality in their characters. Also in this period, Walt and Lillian’s family grew to include daughters Diane and Sharon.
The Walt Disney Family Museum Website is Live; Tickets Available for Dates Starting October 1
The Walt Disney Family Museum site has gone live. Visit it online at waltdisney.org to learn more about the museum, obtain timed tickets, watch videos and the chance to pre-order the museum’s book, The Walt Disney Family Museum: The Man, the Magic, the Memories written by noted Disney historian J.B. Kaufman and Diane Disney Miller with preface by Richard Benefield and introduction by Diane Disney Miller. At 96 pages and containing 124 illustrations, the book tells the story of Walt Disney in ten chapters that coincide with the museum’s galleries. The book will be available exclusively from the museum beginning October 15, 2009, but is currently available for pre-order for $19.95
A Letter From Walt Disney Family Museum’s Executive Director, Richard Benefield
The following letter was published earlier today on the Facebook page of the Walt Disney Family Museum and has been copied here with permission. We encourage all of our readers to become a Fan of the Museum on Facebook to be apprised of the latest news and announcements from the Museum as well as images of just some of its amazing collection on display. You can also follow the museum on Twitter.
Walt Disney was a storyteller.
A Look at More Treasures from the Walt Disney Family Museum
Thanks to your appreciation of our previous article on the Walt Disney Family Museum which featured some of the items that will be on display in Gallery One, titled Walt Disney’s Early Years (1901 – 1923), we are pleased to present you with some of the items that can be found in Gallery Two.
A Sneak Peek Inside the Walt Disney Family Museum Opening October 1; Timed Tickets on Sale August 1
San Francisco, CA, July 16, 2009—The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney, whose artistry, creations, and vision helped define 20th-century American culture, will be brought to life at The Walt Disney Family Museum, which opens in San Francisco in October 2009. The Museum will illuminate Walt Disney’s tremendous successes, disappointments, and unyielding optimism as he pursued innovation and excellence while entertaining and enchanting generations worldwide through his pioneering ventures.
The creator of Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disneyland, and the global yet distinctly American company that bears his name, Disney was an independent risk-taker who started his first business at the age of 19 and worked tirelessly to elevate animation to an art form. He invented timeless characters and stories that brought the fantastical to life and continue to inspire a sense of wonder. Through animated and live action films, television programs, and theme parks, Disney created global symbols, icons, and characters that, more than 40 years after his death, are an indelible part of popular culture in America and around the world.



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