J On The Spectrum - Disney's 100th Anniversary - Cartoons Go To Color

Disney's 100th anniversary is this year, and to celebrate, I'm going to tell the story of this legendary animation company over a yearlong period.

Walt Disney now had a hit character with Mickey Mouse, and over the course of the next 4 years, leading into the Great Depression, Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies would set the industry standard for animation, and at the studio, the techniques that are still used in animation today would be invented.

With the immense help of both his brother Roy Disney, his representatives, and Columbia Pictures, his distributor in the early days of Mickey Mouse, he was able to rid himself of Pat Powers, the notorious producer that wanted all the rights to Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney would get a distribution deal with United Artists, then in 1932, would find out about Technicolor's three strip color process, producing lifelike color for the first time in movies. Technicolor licensed the technology to the Disney studio, then put Flowers and Trees into production, and the result was success and Walt Disney's first Oscar.

The studio thrived during the Great Depression, artists knew Disney was always hiring animators, and Walt was crafting out the basic likelike principles of the incredible medium that continues to entrance audiences to this day. Bank of America was able to help successfully finance the studio in the 1930s, though Walt, in his desire to be the best in animation, and diversify, he would soon undertake the studio's costliest venture in Disney's relatively young 11-year history in 1934.

Next week, Walt Disney makes the first ever true color frame by frame lifelike animated feature in history.