PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Walt Disney

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Walt Disney
By Rochelle Gollust

Broadcast: Sunday, February 29, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated² movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work.

The song is about dreams ... and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture³ the imagination of children and adults all over the world.

VOICE TWO:

 
Graphic⁴ Image
Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan¹.

Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in Nineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago.

Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided⁵ to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life.

VOICE TWO:

A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement.

When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected⁶ place.

VOICE ONE:

Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands.

The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn⁷ with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation⁸. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided⁹ the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It was a huge success.

 
Graphic Image
VOICE TWO:

Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin¹⁰ America, he was "Raton Miquelito."

Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was thefemale mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto¹¹.

VOICE ONE:

Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too.

In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs¹²."

 
Graphic Image
"Snow White" was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies.

VOICE TWO:

Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear.

The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature.

VOICE ONE:

Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy.

Disney 's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects.

"Pinocchio" was an imaginary¹³ world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today.

 
Graphic Image
VOICE TWO:

In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings¹⁴.

Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence¹⁵, loyalty¹⁶ and family love were threatened by evil¹⁷ forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures.

In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy¹⁸ Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth.

Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places...as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future.

Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands.

VOICE TWO:

Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture.

But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world.

Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 pan   

n.平底锅；v.严厉批评

参考例句：

• The water had all boiled away and the pan was burned.水煮干了，锅也烧坏了。
• The eggs were frying in the pan.鸡蛋正在锅里煎。

2 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

3 capture   

vt.捕获，俘获；占领，夺得；n.抓住，捕获

参考例句：

• The company is out to capture the European market.这家公司希望占据欧洲市场。
• With the capture of the escaped tiger,everyone felt relieved.逃出来的老虎被捕获后，大家都松了一口气。

4 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 unexpected   

adj.想不到的，意外的

参考例句：

• I always keep some good wine in for unexpected guests.我总保存些好酒，用来招待不速之客。
• His promotion was unexpected.他的升迁出人意料。

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

8 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

9 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

10 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

11 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

12 dwarfs   

n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Shakespeare dwarfs other dramatists. 莎士比亚使其他剧作家相形见绌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The new building dwarfs all the other buildings in the town. 新大楼使城里所有其他建筑物都显得矮小了。 来自辞典例句

13 imaginary   

adj.想象中的，假想的，虚构的，幻想的；虚数的

参考例句：

• All the characters in this book are imaginary.此书中的所有人物都是虚构的。
• The boy's fears were only imaginary.这小孩的恐惧只是一种想象。

14 surroundings   

n.周围的事物(或情况)，环境

参考例句：

• She is not very well tuned into her surroundings. 她不太适应周围的环境。
• The rich man lives in luxurious surroundings.这位富人生活在奢侈的环境中。

15 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

16 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

17 evil   

n.邪恶，不幸，罪恶；adj.邪恶的，不幸的，有害的，诽谤的

参考例句：

• We pray to God to deliver us from evil.我们祈求上帝把我们从罪恶中拯救出来。
• Love of money is the root of all evil.爱钱是邪恶的根源。

18 academy   

n.(高等)专科院校；学术社团，协会，研究院

参考例句：

• This is an academy of music.这是一所音乐专科学院。
• I visited Chinese Academy of Sciences yesterday.我昨天去访问了中国科学院。