The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 2, Winter 2019 | Page 88

Mickey Mouse and Merry Melodies: Ho
Entertained and Inspired Americ
was able to appeal to a wide audience.
He catered to “neither the ‘highbrow’
nor the ‘hick,’ but the ordinary intelligent
picturegoer.” 31
Disney produced 198 animated
shorts from Steamboat Willie until
1939 and saw the release of his first feature-length
animated film with Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
Many popular culture historians believe
Disney’s cartoons were so popular
because they “provided an escape
for audiences stuck in the Depression.”
The whole of Hollywood was a “dream
factory” and the creator was praised for
“whisking the populace from day-today
drudgery into the bountiful land of
childhood fantasy and wish-fulfilling
dreams.” 32 Disney’s early Mickey cartoons
and Silly Symphonies (of which
Three Little Pigs was one) allowed audiences
to be “freed from the burdens
of time and responsibility.” 33 Beginning
with Steamboat Willie and moving
through the early 1930s, Disney’s
animated shorts portrayed the “cultural
mood, the exhilarating, initially liberating,
then finally frightening disorder”
of the early years of the Depression. 34
Many viewed Disney with a “mythic
saga” life story that reassured the people
that the American dream was still
attainable even in the midst of crisis. 35
He built his company by isolating himself
from other creators, specializing
in animation, and avoiding associating
with stars, agents, or movie moguls. 36
Disney was an independent, self-reliant
animator who successfully changed
the movie industry and made money
through entertainment despite the economic
collapse.
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