Happy Birthday, Walt Disney

Mickey Mouse is an American icon. The animated mouse which Walt Disney created in the 1920s could be called America's most successful ambassador. Mickey, his cast of friends and his candy-colored world are known all over the world.

"Mickey Mouse symbolizes America just like Coca Cola does," says Andreas Platthaus, a German journalist who has written a book about Walt Disney. Disney's America, he says, is a peaceful rural place without racial conflicts. Family values rank highly and you can always count on a happy ending.

Disney is America

Movie-goers across the globe have come to identify Disney with America. But it's not only the scenes and the stories which are so typically American. The way Walt Disney commercialized his creations can also be called a typically American example of entrepreneurship.

Part of that commercial success can even be traced to Germany. Shortly after the first Mickey Mouse films were shown in German theaters at the end of the 1920s, German toy manufacturers started producing Mickey figurines.

When Walt Disney found out about these early cases of product piracy, he took the German toy makers to court. Disney won and he invested the money he received from this copyright case into making new and better movies.

"I don't make films to make money, I make money to make better films"

Disney was a dedicated innovator. In 1928, he produced the Mickey Mouse film "Steamboat Willie" - it was the first animated film with sound. In those early days of "talking pictures", many Hollywood directors and producers were still debating the general value of sound movies.

When audiences first saw "Steamboat Willie", they were electrified: never before had they seen animated creatures that could talk, sing and play instruments. What they had indeed witnessed, was an early example of Disney magic.

Milestones in movie history

The success of "Steamboat Willie" and the ensuing Mickey Mouse cartoons convinced Walt Disney to take animation a step further. In 1937, he produced the first full-length animated film ever: "Snow White".

Many people had warned Disney of the financial risks of this endeavor. Until then, only short cartoons had been shown before a feature film. But would audiences really want to see a cartoon as the night's main attraction? And was a commonly-known fairy tale like "Snow White" a story people would still be interested in?

Disney believed in his dream and invested nearly all of his capital in the production. Once again was he proven right: "Snow White" became a phenomenal success and even won an Oscar.

Since its premiere, the film has been re-released again and again. Generations of children have laughed and cried over the movie. And this year, just in time for Christmas, the Disney company has released "Snow White" on DVD for today's children.

Disney lives on

Walt Disney recognized the potential of animated films from the start. After "Snow White", he went on to produce such classics as "Bambi", "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia". All in all, Walt Disney won no less than 32 Academy Awards.

Walt Disney died in 1966, but his legacy lives on. After the master's death, the Disney studios came out with highly successful animated films like "The Jungle Book", "Aristocats" and "The Lion King".

This month, the stage version of "The Lion King" opened in Hamburg. It's the first time this musical is staged in continental Europe. And the German audience - just like theater goers in New York or London - has fallen in love with this Disney production.

Film festivals

The Disney-legacy also lives on at many festivals for animated film throughout Europe. At the upcoming "Filmfest Dresden", for instance, the focus will be on new animated productions. The animation film industry has a long tradition in Dresden. After the Second World War, the city became home to the "DEFA Trickfilmstudio", an influential production site for animated films in Eastern Germany.

Next March, the southern German city of Stuttgart will celebrate the 11th International Festival of Animated Film. Its aim is to provide a forum for artistic animated films. Animated films from all over the world will be presented during the six days of the festival.

Following in Disney's footsteps

For those who want to learn animation today, Germany's oldest media college, the Film and Television Academy (HFF) in Potsdam near Berlin, offers special training courses. Would-be animators get practice-oriented training. The courses at HFF combine traditional animation techniques and new technologies such as 3D-computer animation, special effects and interactive-TV.

Perhaps the Disney's of tomorrow are already among us at the HFF. And maybe they have chosen the familiar Disney theme-song from Pinocchio as their motto: "When you wish upon a star..."