1.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929
2.
Pinocchio (1940 film)
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Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the Italian childrens novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It was the animated feature film produced by Disney, made after the success of Snow White. The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a puppet named Pinocchio. The puppet is brought to life by a fairy, who informs him that he can become a real boy if he proves himself to be brave, truthful. Pinocchios efforts to become a real boy involve encounters with a host of unsavory characters, the film was adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, and Webb Smith from Collodis book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney. Pinocchio was an achievement in the area of effects animation, giving realistic movement to vehicles, machinery and natural elements such as rain, lightning, smoke, shadows. The film was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7,1940, critical analysis of Pinocchio identifies it as a simple morality tale that teaches children of the benefits of hard work and middle-class values. It eventually made a profit in its 1945 reissue, and is considered one of the greatest animated films ever made, the film and characters are still prevalent in popular culture, featuring at various Disney parks and in other forms of entertainment. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed culturally, historically, Jiminy Cricket explains that he is going to tell a story of a wish coming true. His story begins in the workshop of a woodworker named Geppetto, Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a wooden marionette whom he names Pinocchio. Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a star that Pinocchio be a real boy, during the night, a Blue Fairy visits the workshop and brings Pinocchio to life, although he still remains a puppet. She informs him if he proves himself brave, truthful, and unselfish, he will become a real boy. Geppetto discovers that his wish has come true, and is filled with joy. However, on his way to school, Pinocchio is led astray by Honest John the Fox and his companion, Gideon the Cat, Pinocchio becomes Strombolis star attraction as a marionette who can sing and dance without strings. However, when Pinocchio wants to go home for the night, Jiminy arrives to see Pinocchio, and is unable to free him. The Blue Fairy appears, and asks Pinocchio why he was not at school, Jiminy urges Pinocchio to tell the truth, but instead he starts telling lies, which causes his nose to grow longer and longer. Pinocchio vows to be good from now on, and the Blue Fairy returns his nose to its form and sets him free
3.
Woody Woodpecker
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Though not the first of the screwball characters that became popular in the 1940s, Woody is one of the most indicative of the type. Woody was originally voiced by voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford. Lantz produced theatrical cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universals release schedule until 1972 and he was voiced by Mel Blanc. Woody has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard and he also made a cameo alongside many other famous cartoon characters in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Woody Woodpecker and friends are also icons at the Universal Studios Theme Parks worldwide, as well as the PortAventura Park in Salou, according to Walter Lantzs press agent, the idea for Woody came during the producers honeymoon with his wife, Gracie, in Lake Sherwood, California. A noisy acorn woodpecker outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, Woody shares many characteristics in common with the pileated woodpecker in terms of both physical appearance as well as his characteristic laugh, which resembles the call of the pileated woodpecker. Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the short Knock Knock on November 25,1940, the cartoon ostensibly stars Andy Panda and his father, Papa Panda, but it is Woody who steals the show. The woodpecker constantly pesters the two pandas, apparently just for the fun of it, Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woodys tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird. To Woodys surprise, Andys attempts prevail, and Woody is taken away to the funny farm —, the Woody of Knock Knock was designed by animator Alex Lovy. Woodys original voice actor, Mel Blanc, would stop performing the character after the first two cartoons to work exclusively for Leon Schlesinger Productions, producer of Warner Bros. At Schlesingers, Blanc had already established the voices of two other famous characters who preceded Woody, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Blancs regular speaking voice for Woody was much like the early Daffy Duck, once Warner Bros. signed Blanc up to an exclusive contract, Woodys voice-over work was taken over by Ben Hardaway, who would voice the woodpecker for the rest of the decade. During that time, Blancs Guess Who and laugh are archive sound, audiences reacted well to Knock Knock, and Lantz realized he had finally hit upon a star to replace the waning Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Woody would go on to star in a number of films, with his innate chutzpah and brash demeanor, the character was a natural hit during World War II. His image appeared on US aircraft as nose art, and on mess halls, the 1943 Woody cartoon The Dizzy Acrobat was nominated for the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, which it lost to the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse. Curiously enough, Avery himself never directed a Woody Woodpecker short while at the Walter Lantz studio, animator Emery Hawkins and layout artist Art Heinemann streamlined Woodys appearance for the 1944 film The Barber of Seville, directed by Shamus Culhane. The bird became rounder, cuter, and less demented and he also sported a simplified color scheme and a brighter smile, making him much more like his counterparts at Warner Bros. and MGM. Nevertheless, Culhane continued to use Woody as a lunatic, not a domesticated straight man or defensive homebody
4.
Sergei Eisenstein
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Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a Soviet film director and film theorist, a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. Eisenstein was born to a family in Riga, Latvia. His father, Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein was born to a German Jewish father who had converted to Christianity, Osip Eisenstein, and his mother, Julia Ivanovna Konetskaya, was from a Russian Orthodox family. According to other sources, both of his grandparents were of Baltic German descent. His father was an architect and his mother was the daughter of a prosperous merchant, Julia left Riga the same year as the Russian Revolution of 1905, taking Sergei with her to St. Petersburg. Her son would return at times to see his father, who joined them around 1910, divorce followed and Julia left the family to live in France. Eisenstein was raised as an Orthodox Christian, but became an atheist later on, at the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineering, Sergei studied architecture and engineering, the profession of his father. In 1918 Sergei left school and joined the Red Army to serve the Bolshevik Revolution and this brought his father to Germany after the defeat of the Tsarist government, and Sergei to Petrograd, Vologda, and Dvinsk. In 1920, Sergei was transferred to a position in Minsk. At this time, he was exposed to Kabuki theatre and studied Japanese, learning some 300 kanji characters and these studies would lead him to travel to Japan. In 1920 Eisenstein moved to Moscow, and began his career in working for Proletkult. His productions there were entitled Gas Masks, Listen Moscow, Eisenstein would then work as a designer for Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 1923 Eisenstein began his career as a theorist, by writing The Montage of Attractions for LEF, Eisensteins first film, Glumovs Diary, was also made in that same year with Dziga Vertov hired initially as an instructor. Strike was Eisensteins first full-length feature film, the Battleship Potemkin was acclaimed critically worldwide. Officially, the trip was supposed to allow Eisenstein and company to learn about sound motion pictures, for Eisenstein, however, it was also an opportunity to see landscapes and cultures outside those found within the Soviet Union. He spent the two years touring and lecturing in Berlin, Zürich, London, and Paris. In 1929, in Switzerland, Eisenstein supervised an educational documentary about abortion directed by Tissé entitled Frauennot - Frauenglück, in late April 1930, Jesse L. Lasky, on behalf of Paramount Pictures, offered Eisenstein the opportunity to make a film in the United States
5.
Russian avant-garde
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The term covers many separate, but inextricably related, art movements that flourished at the time, namely Suprematism, Constructivism, Russian Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, Zaum and Neo-primitivism. Given that many artists involved were born or grew up in what is present day Belarus and Ukraine. In 2007, the Modern Museum of Art MoMA in New York, devoted an exhibition entirely to the *Lost Vanguard, Soviet Architecture, beyond Symbolism and Surrealism, Alexei Remizovs Synthetic Art, Northwestern University Press,2010. ISBN 0-8101-2617-6 Russian avant-garde on YouTube - video Kovalenko, G. F, the Russian Avant-Garde of 1910-1920 and Issues of Expressionism. Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art, a history of creation and a collection, -144 p. “Encyclopedia of Russian Avangard. Architecture Vol.1 A-K, Vol.2 L-Z Biography”, sarab’yanov A. D. Mosсow,2013 Surviving Suprematism, Lazar Khidekel. Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley CA,2004 Lazar Khidekel, prestel,2014 Why did Soviet Photographic Avant-garde decline. T
6.
The Bell Laboratory Science Series
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The Bell Laboratory Science Series consists of nine television specials made for the AT&T Corporation that were originally broadcast in color between 1956 and 1964. AT&T and its subsidiary Bell Telephone System had a history of sponsoring broadcasting such as the Bell Telephone Hour, aT&Ts advertising agency, N. W. Ayer & Son, suggested that they also sponsor television specials aimed at family audiences. Science was a natural choice, given the accomplishments and reputation of the company’s research arm. They ultimately approached the famed filmmaker Frank Capra, who had numerous nominations and wins for the Academy Award for Best Director in the 1930s and 40s for films such as Its a Wonderful Life, Capra produced the four films that were televised from 1956–1958. The second four films were produced by Warner Bros, Pictures, with veteran filmmaker Owen Crump in charge, these were televised between 1958 and 1962. The final film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, and televised in 1964, each special explored a single subject in detail. The host for the first eight films was Dr. Frank C, Baxter, a USC professor of English and television personality who played the role of Dr. Research. The host for the last film in the series was Walt Disney, following their television broadcast, the films were made available at minimal cost for classroom use. J. B. Gilbert estimated that, by the mid 1960s, most of the films have been released for home video. The first four films of the series were produced and written by Frank Capra from 1952–1956, as described by biographer Joseph McBride, Capra had retired from feature filmmaking by 1952, due in part to the turmoil of the Hollywood Blacklist era. McBride writes that Capra undoubtedly realized that the AT&T job was a way of going back to work quietly, like his work on the war films, he employed found footage and animation to verify, illustrate, and document what was being said in the voice-over narration. After the Bell series, Capra returned to films as the director of A Hole in the Head. From the beginning of the project, Capra had insisted that the films would explore the relationship of science, furthermore, I will say that science, in essence, is just another facet of mans quest for God. Capras screenplays called for two characters, Dr. Research and Mr. Fiction Writer, who would interact both with other and with animated characters specific to each film. Matthew Gunter adds that the Fiction Writer possesses many of the characteristics of the heroes in earlier Capra films, Mr. Writer also acts like the audiences surrogate, often expressing a healthy skepticism or disbelief about the facts Dr. Research presents, asking questions to the scientist, and translating his technical verbiage into the language of the common people, the religious elements in the screenplays occasioned much discussion and some acrimony with the scientific advisory board and consultants such as Donald Menzel, but many were finally incorporated. James Gilbert has written, When finally produced, Our Mr. Sun included a mixture of science, documentary footage, low-key advertising, most striking, Our Mr. Sun began and ended with inescapable religious allusions
