The company's debt rises to $4.3 million."Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Bambi" & "Dumbo" are playing in Europe,
but no revenue is coming in due to the damaged economy.Roy urges Walt to cut expenses & staff; Walt refuses.Walt proposes the 1st postwar cartoon feature but Roy convinces Walt that the studio
could not afford to do it. Walt wanted it to be either "Alice In Wonderland"
or "Peter Pan.""Make Mine Music," a short cartoon, is released and produces a small profit. Walt really is not pleased with the film.The work on "Mickey And The Beanstalk," interrupted due to the war, is resumed. It is combined with another cartoon and released as "Fun and Fancy Free."
It is the last time the voice of Mickey Mouse is portrayed by Walt. A sound effects worker becomes the voice of Mickey Mouse."Song of the South" is produced. It is 30% cartoon and 70% live action. It premieres in Atlanta and gets good reaction.
"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" is named best movie song of 1946 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, while James Baskett, who plays Uncle Remus, wins an Oscar.
The movie's production cost of $2.125 million causes only a $226,000 profit.
1947
Walt considers making educational and commercial films, but decides that the company should be in the entertainment business.
He decides that Alaska should be filmed, then takes a flying tour himself. The flight almost went bad due to heavy clouds and no radio contact to land.
After circling for 2 hours, the plane lands safely.
Walt, after reviewing the Alaska films, suggests a feature length film based on the life of seals. Due to it's short time, Walt books the film with a lengthy feature.
The audience's reaction to the film is good. It eventually wins an Academy Award for best 2-reel documentary.
Other "package" movies do not fair as well, as the whole film industry begins to get into trouble while television starts to grasp America's attention. This makes Walt realize that he must return to full-length cartoons.
Walt assigns all of his top talent to make "Cinderella," which had been in development for several years, along
with "Peter Pan" & "Alice in Wonderland."
Walt doesn't feel comfortable with the latter two films, expressing that the characters in the stories are too cold.
1948-1949
Walt was always fascinated with trains, dating back to when he lived in Missouri. He had electric trains set up in his office. Walt & Lillian had been looking for property to build a new house and Walt required the lot of land to be large enough to accommodate a train circling the home. They found property and built the new home in Holmby Hills, CA. Walt designs a half mile run and called the train's engine the "Lilly Belle," named after Mrs. Disney. He called it the Carolwood-Pacific Railroad. This formed part of Walt's plan for a new kind of enterprise. Walt would always take his daughters to amusement parks on Sundays. He always noticed that the parents were bored and the parks unattended in regards to the cleanliness and look. Walt began talking about letting people come to Hollywood and really "see" something. He started to formulate plans in August to build an amusement area to be named Mickey Mouse Park. Roy reminded Walt about the large debt to the Bank of America and the failure of postwar films.
1949
The Walt Disney Music Company is formed.
1950
"Cinderella" debuts and is well accepted, the first hit for Disney Studios since "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
"Beaver Valley," the second True-Life Adventure film, is even more popular that the first(Seal Island).
By the end of 1950, Disney Studios debt is reduced to $1.7 million.
1951
Walt schedules "Alice In Wonderland" to follow "Cinderella." "Alice In Wonderland" had been an idea since 1933,
as Walt contemplated both a live-action film and putting Ginger Rogers in a cartoon Wonderland. He later dropped the live-action idea and although he toyed with the idea of changing the original story, he decided to stay with it. Animation was long and tedious
and the animators didn't enjoy it very much. Once the film was completed, Walt and crew were relieved. The film was a disappointment in both London and America, while losing $1 million.
"Peter Pan" was the next cartoon in production. Walt bought the rights to the play in 1939 and spent years trying to convert it into a cartoon.
Walt agrees to produce a Christmas show for NBC. It attracts a huge audience and TV’s value impresses Walt.
Diane enters into the University of Southern California.
1952
Walt starts development of a script for "Lady and the Tramp," a script started in 1943 but dropped for almost a decade.
Walt produces "The Sword and the Rose" and "Rob Roy" and contemplates "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," a Jules Verne classic adventure. The film
ultimately costs $ 4.2 million to make. Walt works for a year to develop the script. The giant squid scene requires 8 days to film and added $250,000 to the film budget. It is worth it as this scene is the highlight of the film.
Due to the success of the True-Life Adventure films, Walt receives many film propositions from naturalists. "The Living Desert" was developed but the Disneys run into a problem with RKO, as it has incurred heavy liabilities and starts to decline. Roy
is confident that RKO wouldn't have the energy or the know-how to sell the film. He establishes a small sales organization called Buena Vista, named after the street where the studio was located. The film is a huge success, earning $4.0 million.
It becomes the Disney's biggest profit-maker, profiting $3.7 million.
Roy states to Buena Vista's key salesmen that the Disney Company has 2 attractions with great promise("20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" & "Lady and the Tramp") and wants to know if the salesmen would be able to go forward with Disney's
own distribution company. The answer is yes and all Disney films thereafter are distributed by Buena Vista.
