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In Walt Disney was a trend setting filmmaker. His single-mindedness as a producer was demonstrated not only in the artistry he employed in his films, but also in the business that he developed around it. The word "Disney" carries with it a stereotype of fantasy worlds, family entertainment-wholesome, even bland.

The mega-studio that bears his name today continually reinforces that image. This impression however is something of a misconception.

Walter Elias Disney at age 16, during World War I joined the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 20s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". As their company went bankrupt two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies. Walt was backed up financially only by Margaret Winkler and his brother Roy, who would remain his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927.

Walt then started working on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that Margaret Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They'd also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks.

While taking the train home, Walt started doodling.. These doodles resulted in a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lilly and Roy's wife Edna to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. Steamboat Willie (1928) was immediately picked up. It became the first cartoon to use synchronize sound. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Many more cartoons followed.

In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932), was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs (1933) , was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still very popular.

In 1934, Walt started working on feature length cartoons. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinnochio (1940) , Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now. In the mid- 40s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce aniamted features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

In 1955, he even opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success.
Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series "Disneyland" (1954) He also produced "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955) and "Zorro" (1957).

To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida. He never did finish those plans, however; in 1966, he contracted lung cancer.

He died in December at age 65. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. His studio became the preeminent animation house with an uncompromising attitude toward independence that gave him the freedom to take the cartoon medium to artistic and commercial prominence. Even after his death his company continues to produce animated and live-action films, a growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten.