![]() ![]() It had to be a huge hit for the company to survive. ![]() By the time the film was completed, it cost so much that it couldn’t just be a decent success. Knowing he needed to make a drastic change, Walt decided to take a huge risk and make another full-length animated film. He went on to spend nearly $3 million on Cinderella. The ‘package films’ from the 1940s helped Disney Animation survive during WWII. The only way Walt could keep his animation company afloat was by releasing military propaganda for the war and making low-budget ‘package films’, such as Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, and Make Mine Music, that included animated shorts mixed in with live-action. But, unfortunately, a year later the film Bambi made only $1.64 million from a $1.7 million budget. Dumbo was made at half the cost of Snow White, $950,000, and managed to gain $1.6 million at the box-office during its original release. This required Walt to make his next picture, Dumbo, with a shorter running time and on a much smaller budget. The Second World War and the failed box-office takings of Pinocchio and Fantasia left Walt’s company $4 million in debt. But, how did it all happen? A Little HistoryĪ good place to start is to look at how the studio was doing before its animated classic Cinderella was released. ![]() This movie has been hailed as the film that “saved” Disney feature animation. With the new live-action Cinderella movie now in theaters, and with Disney higher than ever because of a certain musical princess movie called Frozen, it’s important to remember the original animated classic: Cinderella. ![]()
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