The wonderful world of Walt Disney

By Daniel Christopher Jones

On December 5, 1901 Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Little did anyone know that in the next 65 years, the world of entertainment would never be the same. With his brother, Roy, Walt Disney formed Walt Disney Productions that would eventually give us some of the most famous cartoon characters of all time, from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, created in the early years of animation, to the 21st century digital stars like Woody the cowboy and Buzz Lightyear.

Since Snow White, its first animated feature released in 1937, Disney has created over 300 characters that operate over 100 brands, creating a business worth $4.4 billion a year.

A popular showman as well as a innovator in animation and feature film production, Walt Disney became the father of the cartoon genre, picking up a huge number of awards along the way, including 59 Academy Award nominations (a record) and winning a total of 26 Oscars.

What's more, his company has come a long way since Steam Boat Willie, becoming a worldwide institution in itself with theme parks and resorts in the US, Japan, France and China.

Even since his death in 1966, technological advancements in animation and numerous shifts in the movie industry have failed to impact on Walt Disney's success.

You will struggle to find a single person on earth who has never come across at least one of Disney's many characters. And the best way to sum up the impact that Walt Disney's brainchild has had is to say that it's impossible to imagine the world without it.