Walter Disney, later known as "Walt" Disney, was born on 5 December 1901 in the US. He was very good at drawing and painting and studied cartooning at school. He worked as an ambulance driver during the First World War (1914–18) but his passion was for drawing.
When the war ended, he started to work on some short films. Los Angeles, in California, was already the centre of the US film industry, so Walt moved there with his brother Roy. The two of them decided to start their own company to produce Walt’s animations, and on 16 October 1923, the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio was founded.
In 1928, Disney launched one of his most famous creations, the black-and-white film . You can watch the eight minute cartoon on YouTube – it includes the first appearance of Mickey Mouse. turned Mickey Mouse into a huge star.
Soon, fans could buy their own Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes – even toothbrushes. After Mickey’s success, Disney created other characters, such as Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck. In 1934, Walt decided that he wanted to try something more ambitious – his first full-length film.
He was inspired by a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm called . It took three years to make, but would become one of the highest grossing (money-making) films of all time. This massive inspired the studio to tell more children's stories in animated form, which led to , , and .
For Walt, there was no limit to the number of tales he wanted to invent. He once said, "I don't ma.