Directing at Disney

If you were asked to name the director of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, could you do it? How about Bambi, Pinocchio, or Cinderella? We know and love directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, and Alfred Hitchcock, but even Disney fans know very little about the directors of their favorite classic animated films. The job itself is mysterious. What does a director actually do? The name evokes someone wearing a baseball cap, leaning back from the camera to yell, ''Cut!''through their megaphone. How do you do that in animation? Can you tell an animated character, ''Once more, with feeling''? In fact, when the very first animated films appeared, there were no directors. With no actors, sets, costumes, or sound, what appeared on-screen was simply decided and drawn by one or two artists, with little need for planning. But as Walt Disney refined and improved the quality of the films he made, his staff grew to include hundreds of specialised artists, all of whom needed to know what they were making and how their part contributed to the overall. While Walt himself did this in his early films, the need to track the hundreds of details and creative decisions soon mandated a separate and distinct role. And as Walt''s interests grew to include live action, television, and theme parks, he relied more and more on these lieutenants to shape and guide his animated films. Directing at Disney: The Original Directors of Walt''s Animated Films chronicles the progression of this unknown yet pivotal role from the 1920s through the 1970s. For students of filmmaking and management, this book serves as a go-to resource for this creative and sometimes technical role. For all Disney fans, these personal portraits of Walt''s closest collaborators offer a fuller picture behind the stories, characters, and creation of Disney''s beloved animated films, as well as a fascinating reflection of Walt''s own growth as a creative leader.

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