Research Catalog

Walt in Wonderland : the silent films of Walt Disney

Title
Walt in Wonderland : the silent films of Walt Disney / Russell Merritt, J.B. Kaufman.
Author
Merritt, Russell.
Publication
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
Supplementary Content
  • Contributor biographical information
  • Publisher description

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance NC1766.U52 D548 2000Off-site

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Details

Additional Authors
Kaufman, J. B.
Description
164 pages : illustrations (some color); 28 cm
Summary
  • During the Roaring Twenties Walt Disney and his friends made upwards of one hundred films, turning them out as often as one- and two-per month. Years before Mickey Mouse, the young entrepreneur recruited and nurtured an extraordinary array of talent that included Ubbe Iwerks, Rudy Ising, Carl Stalling, Hugh Harman, and Friz Freleng: men who in later years played crucial roles in creating the golden era of Disney, Warner Brothers and MGM cartoons.
  • What the Disney silents reveal is absorbing: a director taking his first tentative steps, then gathering confidence and exploring new avenues of expression with images that are still fresh and exhilarating today. They bear out the intuition of common sense: that Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies were not created in a vacuum, and that Disney was developing his gifts as a producer from the beginning.
  • They also reveal a director soaking up the work of the best silent filmmakers of the time - not only rival animators, but live-action directors and comic strip characters as well. Disney's sources ranged from Buster Keaton and Felix the Cat to Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Tom Mix, Barney Google, and The Big Parade. Through it all, Disney's gifts for creating witty gags and charming characters become immediately apparent.
  • So do his skills as a teacher, and his growing appetite for the macabre and the sado-masochistic. Drawing on interviews with Disney's co-workers, Disney's business papers, promotional materials, scripts, drawings, and correspondence, Walt in Wonderland attempts to reconstruct Disney's silent film career and place his early films in critical perspective. It also provides a detailed filmography of Disney's silent work.
Subject
  • Walt Disney Company
  • Animated films > United States > History and criticism
  • Silent films > United States > History and criticism
  • Animated films
  • Silent films
  • Stummfilm
  • Zeichentrickfilm
  • Verzeichnis
  • United States
Genre/Form
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Note
  • Revised edition of a bilingual version Nel paese delle meraviglie = Walt in Wonderland. 1992.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (page 161) and index.
Contents
Disney's cat and rabbit years -- The Kansas City period -- Newman Laugh-O-grams -- Laugh-O-grams films -- Lafflets -- Tommy Tucker's tooth -- Martha -- Alice's wonderland -- Alice comedies -- The first Alice series -- The second Alice series -- The third Alice series -- Oswald the lucky rabbit -- The arrival of Mickey Mouse.
ISBN
  • 0801849071
  • 9780801849077
LCCN
00062736
OCLC
  • ocm44885252
  • 44885252
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries