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Thursday, April 2, 2009
Checking in on Winnie the Pooh
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The character Winnie the Pooh has lived on for generations in the hearts of children everywhere who have followed the journey of the little bear and his friend Christopher Robin. From the pages of the first Pooh books to the big screen of the Disney animated adventures, Pooh proved to be a resounding success, and it was inevitable that its promoters should capitalize on it by creating a line of Pooh merchandise in the form of a whole line of stuffed bear animals and other products. As outstanding as this success story is, however, the real story behind the Winnie character is found in that of its author, A.A. Milne.
Born in London, England in 1882 as the youngest of three boys, Alan Alaxander Milne received influences early on that would prove to be instrumental in shaping his literary career. The school he attended, Henley House, was owned by his father and Milne was fortunate enough to have the literary legend H.G. Wells as one of his instructors. Wells noted the gift for words that Alan possessed and later developed a friendship with the young student. In college Milne wrote for a student magazine and started freelancing for magazines and newspapers. Noting the quality of his works, H.G. Wells encouraged the young Milne to compile some of his articles into book form, and it was through this that Milne decided to publish the book Lovers in London in 1905. The book enjoyed good commercial success at the time, but Milne admitted later that he did not particularly like it, so much so that he repurchased the publication rights to the book to prevent further reprints.
After completing college Milne contributed to the British humor magazine Punch and later became the assistant editor. At Punch he met his editor's daughter Dorothy (also known as Daphne) whom he married in 1913. His writing career was briefly interrupted by military service in 1915 but thereafter Milne began to write prolifically. He managed to publish numerous plays which were quite successful as well as three novels. The true inspiration for the character we would recognize as Winnie the Pooh, however, came from the birth of his son Christopher Robin Milne in 1920.
Milne published a book of children's poems before eventually writing the famous Pooh stories. Like the Pooh stories, these poems borrowed inspiration from the young boy Robin. As an example, he published a book of poetry called Vespers which is said to be inspired by the time that Milne had spent observing his son Robin say his prayers at bedtime. After the finished work was submitted to Vanity Fair (netting him $50) Milne was asked to submit more, and eventually he published a well received children's book of poetry.
The direct influence of the Pooh bear comes from the military however. A bear named Winnipeg whose mother was killed by a hunter was found by the Canadian militia and used as a mascot in World War I. Later Winnipeg was sold to the London zoo and it was there that the young Christopher Robin, fond of animals, found him. Winnipeg remained in the zoo until its death in 1934 and Christopher Robin named his teddy bear after it. Inspired by his young son's affection for the bear, Milne began to write the story of "Winnie" (Winnipeg) the Pooh and the young Christopher Robin.
Four books telling the story of Pooh and his journeys would go on to be published, eventually published and translated in thirty four languages and making the author very famous. To illustrate the Pooh books Milne enlisted the services of Ernest Shepard, one his professional acquaintances who worked with him at Punch magazine, agreeing to give him twenty percent of the books' royalties for remuneration.
It was not easy at first for the real life Christopher Robin to accept his identification with the central human character in the Pooh stories, and he had become somewhat estranged from the elder Milner as time went on. Robin eventually resigned himself to his place in the Pooh legacy. After service in World War II Robin married his cousin Lesley de Selincourt and opened his own bookstore. After the elder Milner's death Robin wrote two books of his own, The Enchanted Place and The Path Through the Trees.
The Pooh story is based on the real life journey of these three characters: Milne the writer, Winnipeg the bear, and Christopher Robin the young boy. Without them there would be no Winnie the Pooh.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Gilbert
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Mickey Mouse - A Reflection of Walt Disney
Disney Desktop Wallpaper FreeMention the name Walt Disney and one cannot help but imagine images of superior animation, magnificent theme parks, an entertainment and financial empire and the little guy who started it all –Mickey Mouse.
In 1928, Walt Disney had run into bad times while working in Kansas City. Most of his hired animators had left him and went to work for a competing studio. Things looked bleak, but out of a desperate situation came a new character. Inspired by a mouse that prowled his office, that at one point Disney could not afford cheese to feed it anymore, Mickey Mouse was born. Mickey Mouse is now the most recognizable cartoon in the world. His lasting appeal to people of all nations is one of the great phenomena’s of the twentieth century. The question of why Mickey Mouse has been so successful has been discussed from time to time. Some debate that it is because he was one of the first seriously animated characters. Others say the manner in which he is drawn is unique compared to other cartoons. Although the success of Mickey Mouse seems to be a mystery to many, his success is the representation of the value of Walt Disney.
In this essay I will look at Mickey Mouse using the value analysis critique. Value analysis is the identifying of a value or values that define a culture or a person. So in this paper I will look specifically at what value Mickey Mouse represents and why that value has made him into the most successful cartoon character in the world.
The optimism of Mickey Mouse comes from that of his creator, Walt Disney. In an interview, Walt Disney said the following:
"Sometimes I’ve tried to figure out why Mickey appealed to the whole world. Everybody’s tried to figure it out. So far as I know, nobody has. He’s a pretty nice fellow who never does anybody harm, who gets into scrapes through no fault of his own, but always manages to come up grinning."
Mickey “always manages to come up grinning” because Disney learned how to “come up grinning.”
Looking at the all the times in Walt Disney’s life when he was down, one can see that nothing could ever stop him because he always got back up. Growing up on the farm in Marceline, Missouri his family had their share of bad times. Two years in a row the crops failed and Disney’s father, Elias, had to mortgage the farm. Then the well where the Disney family and the livestock got their water became contaminated. After swine fever had hit the hog herd, Elias became extremely ill with typhoid. He hovered between life and death for several weeks at the hospital. Walt’s older brother Roy enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I and Walt, being inspired by his brother but still being a year too young to enlist, persuaded a Red Cross recruiter to let him join up. Walt was shipped off to France in October 1918, when the war was practically over. However, he saw the devastated lands over which the war had been fought. He spent ten months in France and told friends that it constituted “a lifetime of experience.”
In the fall of 1919 Disney tried to get a job as a newspaper cartoonist in Kansas City but was turned down by all the papers. He became discouraged but remained determined, and got a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. There he became friends with a Dutchman named Ub Iwerks. A few weeks after Christmas, both of them were laid off and Disney and Iwerks decided to “come up grinning” and go into business for themselves. They got a job in February, 1920 at the Kansas City Film Ad Company.
Disney began to experiment with animation and gradually completed several cartoons that he shipped off to local theaters. He approached the owner of the Film Ad Company, A. Vern Cauger, with a suggestion to develop a series of cartoon shorts. His idea was rejected, so Disney decided to “come up” again and break out on his own. He collected $15,000 from local investors and used the money to assemble a small studio with a working crew. Walt joined with his brother Roy as business partners to eventually establish the three-room Disney Brother Studios in Los Angeles.
Walt signed a contract with New York distributor, Margaret Winkler, and her backer, Universal Studios, for one series and an option for two more of “Alice’s Wonderland.” An animated comedy that featured a live-action six year old filmed in a cartoon setting. The initial contract called for one cartoon per month. In 1924, Margaret Winkler’s husband, Charles Mintz, took over the distribution company and demanded one film every three weeks. In 1926 with a steady income, a new studio was built and a new animated character, named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was developed. He debuted in 1927 and became a great success. In 1928 the current Oswald contract expired and Mintz concocted a scheme to make Disney and his studio fold over to him, slowly luring away the majority of Walt’s staff. Disney negotiated with Mintz for a new contract, and was stunned when Mintz offered him less money and told him to take it or leave it. Within days, most of Disney’s other animators went to work for Mintz also. Roy Disney was very upset and asked his brother, “Do you realize what sort of situation we are in? We’ve lost our animators and it looks like we’ll lose our studio." Facing the first major crisis of his career with a “grin,” Walt held secret brainstorming sessions with Ub Iwerks, and his brother Roy. At a time when things seemed to be at their worst, here emerged Mickey Mouse.
Like his creator, Mickey also had his share of hard times and was able to always get back up. In 1928, Mickey starred in his first film, “Plane Crazy” and then followed “Gallopin’ Gaucho." His third film was a breakthrough innovation that incorporated sound for the first time called “Steamboat Willie." In “Steamboat Willie” Mickey gets into a “scrape” with the captain but tries to remain confident and pretend he is not afraid of the captain when his expression sometimes dictates otherwise. Even in the earliest of cartoon shorts Mickey does not back down from his problems. There were many times in Walt’s life when he was faced with a scary situation but chose to keep his head up and move forward. “Mickey didn’t seek trouble, and he didn’t complain; he rolled with the punches...as in “The Little Tailor,” he showed warrior resourcefulness and won, once again, a kiss from dear,...Minnie." Mickey Mouse’s relentlessness to remain optimistic when confronting the struggle was drawn into him by Walt Disney’s pen.
The personality of Mickey Mouse is that of his author, Walt Disney. As a young man, Walt Disney always impressed friends and family alike “with his mischievous curiosity and fun-loving nature." His younger sister Ruth took note that he had an engaging personality and “was always thinking of ideas." She said that throughout his whole life, “Walt always seemed like a kid to me." Mickey is the kind of fellow who is always playing around and playing jokes. The entire concept of the creation of Disneyland and Disneyworld, the two major theme parks, and its spokesman, Mickey Mouse, is to inspire people to keep the wonder, youth and fun of life alive and well in everyone. Walt Disney always seemed like a kid to his sister, Ruth, and so does Mickey Mouse. A cartoon never grows old and never changes with age, it never dies. When Ub Iwerks was shown Walt’s preliminary sketches of Mickey he said, “he looks just like you—same nose, same face, same whiskers, same gestures and expressions. All he needs now is your voice." Walt admitted that he would look in the mirror and use his face as a model and that many of the facial expressions were his." Mickey’s appealing charisma of youth and joy to make others happy comes from the imaginations of Walt Disney’s desire to make others happy.
Mickey Mouse’s perseverance to succeed is why he is so appealing. In America the majority of people were all the “little guy." The decade that preceded Mickey Mouse, America lived through World War I, and a year after Mickey was created came the Great Depression. The distance that separated the rich from the poor was immense. There wasn’t much in between. In contrast, the number of poor and middle-class incomes greatly outnumbered those on the higher end of the social ladder. Walt Disney had also lived along with America during these difficult times as well. Disney had always been the “little guy.” He was always getting picked on by Hollywood and tried to be taken advantage of. He speaks of when he was dismally poor in his tiny office of Kansas City and one of his friends was a little mouse. He states “It used to crawl across my desk and I’d feed it bits of cheese. I got quite fond of it and looked forward to its visits.” Disney was with nothing but a mouse to look forward to. “It would take the cheese right out of my fingers and then curl up and go to sleep in the palm of my hand,” he said. Then there came a period when he could not even afford cheese for the mouse any longer. In those hard times Disney remained determined that he would make his dreams come true as well as everyone else in America also desired.
When the time came that Walt Disney became successful in the creation of Mickey Mouse he could not help but put the very same value characteristic into that mouse that Disney had in himself. Disney knew that he had become a success because he decided to never give up. He decided to take the value of “never quitting” and put it into animated form. Mickey Mouse is an animated creation of the value of “never quitting.” Mickey Mouse is so appealing as a cartoon because people in America and all over the world recognize that value to never quit in Mickey. The value of Mickey Mouse is a direct representation of that same value of Walt Disney. The greatest human achievement possible is getting back up just one more time. Anyone who possesses this quality can never be defeated and can do anything. People pick up on that and can feel it in the personality of Mickey Mouse. People want to be like Mickey Mouse and that is why he is so likeable.
Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney are the same exact value. “There’s a lot of Mouse in me,” Disney said of himself. They both are huge successes. Disney’s success came from the worldwide appeal of Mickey Mouse. Mickey’s success came from the worldwide appeal of Walt Disney.
In analyzing Mickey Mouse as the text that has permanently become a global phenomenon, and then his creator, the value of “never quitting” is easily identified as the one they both have in common. It is the value that they and the people that admire them also have in common. It answers the question of why Mickey Mouse has become so successful. He is the embodiment of Walt Disney’s character. They both had extremely difficult times in their lives just like the majority of people do at some period during theirs. They both endured the hard times because they knew eventually they would become successful. People identify with both of them because they too know they will become successful sooner or later by exercising the same value of “never quitting.”
Timothy McGaffin II graduated from the University of Utah with a BA degree in Mass Communication and worked as a journalist for the Lone Peak Press and The Daily Herald.
Visit http://www.championsneverquit.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Timothy_McGaffin_II
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Lion King - Africa Comes to Life
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From the opening song to the last dying note, Africa comes alive on stage in Disney's The Lion King. This musical has plenty of eye candy, toe-tapping tunes, and a wonderful story line. It is no wonder that it has won both Tony and Olivier awards in its short, but successful life.
The opening number of The Lion King is the same as the opening number of the movie from which the show is adapted. During the song "The Circle of Life," the animals promenade through the audience onto the stage. Rafiki, a mandarin who in the stage version of the story is played by a woman, welcomes the new cub that was born to king Mufasa and his mate Sarabi. The animals must journey to Pride Rock, and they make this journey though the aisles of the theater, giving audiences a first-hand look at the stunning costumes and puppets that make people literally become the animal characters they are portraying.
The costumes are what make The Lion King so magical. Audience members quickly forget that they are watching human actors onstage, as the actors become one with the puppets they are handling. The giraffes, as an example, are actually actors on four stilts with towering heads. Main characters have mechanical headpieces that allow more animal-like movements while still allowing the actor to act. This is how Disney avoided creating a musical full of the park-inspired plush costumes. The look of each animal onstage is very African in design, adding to the authentic feel of the show. The battle scenes are "fought" through carefully choreographed dance, and the wildebeest stampede brings together so many aspects of theater that it must be seen to be understood.
The plot of The Lion King follows the plot of the original Disney movie almost perfectly. There are some additions, of course, in order to make the performance long enough to fit on a Broadway stage. Several new songs are added, as well as some new dialogues that help add more depth to the characters, especially the villain Scar.
The Lion King is Disney's second attempt to turn a successful animated film into a Broadway production. Its predecessor, Beauty and the Beast, was highly successful, as it contained elements that appealed to adults and children alike. The Lion King has enjoyed similar success since its debut in 1997. It is currently traveling and enjoying ongoing productions in New York and London.
The set of The Lion King adds to its brilliance. Pride Rock is access through a spiraling staircase, and several trap doors allow the characters to appear exactly when needed. A special feature towards the back of the stage allows a portion of the set to tilt upward to add another measure of special effects to this musical.
Theatergoers who are thinking of skipping The Lion King, fearing that it is simply a dressed up version of the movie, are missing out. This magical musical with stunning sets, intricate characters, and amazing costumes is something that all theater lovers must see.
If you fancy some Lion King tickets or any other Theatre Tickets visit the website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_Sharple
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_Sharple
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