I joined a fans-club of Disney (especially Donald Duck). One of the members threw an interesting topic once.

“Perhaps we don’t realize that all these years Walt Disney has created such a wonderful and great female characters, such as:

• Daisy Duck, a female duck who has active socialization, and she is pretty too.
• Minnie Mouse, a female mouse, more less she is like Daisy, but sometimes she shows some courages when she has to fight Pete.
• Grandma Duck, a strong and old woman, but still has spirit to maintain her farm. She is wise, and have great patience dealing with Gus Goose, the lazy goose.
• Magica de Spell and Madam Mim, female witches who have dedicated themselves for magic, and choose not to marry, but to focus on the magic.

Who else?”

My answer is:

DORY
from Finding Nemo

Why am I saying that Dory is one of the greatest female Characters in Disney?

I know that Walt Disney’s Female characters are mostly princesses, such as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Snow White, etc. They are great, surely. But I adore Dory.

You know, Dory has a weakness: SHORT TERM MEMORY. She easily forgets everything. For us, Dory’s weakness is funny, because that is the humorous aspect in this movie. But if we put ourselves as Dory, I think Dory feels frustrated because of that! She can forget about things which means a lot for her. Family, perhaps? Or someone she loves?

Do you remember when Marlin wants to leave her after they sees Nemo ‘dead’?
Dory feels that she has a friend. She has never had a real friend, she feels that she has a friend when she goes with Marlin.

Can you imagine living without any friend?
I can’t

But Dory, although she has such a problem like that, she doesn’t give up. She still can face her problems with her head’s up. We can say, “Don’t worry, be happy!”

I think it can be our reflection.

If we face problems in our life, don’t be ‘desperate people’, thinking that we are the only one who suffers in this world. Face them in courage! Don’t forget to ask GOD’s help. Because we have God, and He helps us through the ways we cannot imagine, and one of them is through friends. We still can remember our friends, not like Dory, so be grateful of that! Say thanks to your friends!

Just like Dory says,

Just keep swimming…
Just keep swimming…

By the way, if you like Finding Nemo like I do, check this out… It’s worth to be collected…

Being born from musician family, I love hearing music. But not like another members of my family, I hate jazz. Since my childhood, I have listened to Disney music. I started to listen Disney songs since I could play a cassette on the stereo. And my grandfather had a collection of vinyl records which contained of Disney songs I like, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with its Someday My Prince Will Come or Heigh Ho, It’s Off To Play We Go, Davy Crocket theme song, Mickey Mouse Club theme song, etc. I also like the movie and the song from Robin Hood with its Love Song. Talking about Robin Hood, I’d like to show you some cute figurines I like… I found it when browsing It shows the characters as dolls, such as Robin Hood itself, Maid Marian, Little John, Sir Hiss, Prince John, and Lady Kluck.I’ve found a Winnie the Pooh figurine which dressed as Robin Hood!! It’s very cute!!

Now, years later, Walt Disney Records reproduced an album which contains songs from old movies until the newest movies, Enchanted (which is also available in Blu-ray format). There are so many songs I like in this album. I strongly recommend this album. It was published in CD, 2 CDs in one package. You will find some of songs I’ve mentioned above. And I also want to make a tribute for Enchanted song in this album, True Love’s Kiss. I will discuss about Enchanted later. (Oh my God, I love this movie!!!)

Disney ’s Greatest Love Songs

The complete list of songs:

CD 1
01. A Whole New World - Brad Kane & Lea Salonga (Aladdin)
02. Beauty & the Beast - Beth Fowler/Broadway Cast (Beauty & the Beast)
03. Can You Feel The Love Tonight - Joseph Williams; Sally Dworsky; Nathan Lane; Ernie Sabella; Kristle Edwards (Lion King)
04. You’ll Be In My Heart - Phil Collins (Tarzan)
05. If I Never Knew You - Jon Secada/Shanice (Pocahontas)
06. Someday - Eternal (Hunchback Of Notre Dame)
07. Candle On The Water - Helen Reddy (Pete’s Dragon)
08. He’s A Tramp - Peggy Lee (Lady & the Tramp)
09. Bella Notte - George Givot/ Bill Thompson (Lady & the Tramp)
10. Baby Mine - Betty Noyes (Dumbo)
11. Some Day My Prince Will Come - Adriana Caselotti (Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs)
12. I Wander - Mary Costa (Sleeping Beauty)
13. Love Is A Song - Chorus (Bambi)
14. When She Loved Me - Sarah McLachlan (Toy Story 2)
15. A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes - Ilene Woods (Cinderella)

CD 2
01. True Love’s Kiss - Amy Adams & James Marsden (Enchanted)
02. Something There - Paige O’Hara; Robby Benson; Angela Lansbury; Jerry Orbach; David Ogden Stiers (Beauty & The Beast)
03. Kiss The Girl - Samuel E Wright (Little Mermaid)
04. I Won’t Say (I’m In Love) - Susan Egan; Cheryl Freeman; LaChanze; Vaneese Thomas; Lillias White; (Hercules)
05. Just Around The Riverbend - Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas)
06. Love Will Find A Way - Kenny Lattimore & Heather Headley (Lion King 2 Simba’s Pride)
07. I’ll Try - Jonatha Brooke (Return To Neverland)
08. Reflection - Lea Salonga (Mulan)
09. Someone’s Waiting For You - Shelby Flint (Rescuers)
10. Love - Nancy Adams (Robin Hood)
11. I’m Wishing/One Song - Adriana Caselotti & Harry Stockwell (Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs)
12. Once Upon A Dream - Mary Costa & Bill Shirley (Sleeping Beauty)
13. So This Is Love - Ilene Woods & Mike Douglas (Cinderella)
14. Looking For Romance (I Bring You A Song) - Chorus (Bambi)
15. When You Wish Upon A Star - Louis Armstrong (Pinocchio)

Mouse
Most people hate them…

But this mouse
Everybody loves him…

Mickey Mouse

Every people in the world knows this mouse. They love him, they adore him…

Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse after he lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
He was named Mickey Mouse after Lilian, Walt’s wife, suggested it. Mickey’s first name is Mortimer, who becomes Mickey’s rival in getting Minnie’s attention now.

Mickey’s first appearance was Plane Crazy (look here, it would be nice to see this lamp in your desk…). It was first released on May 15, 1928. In this story, Mickey makes a plane. After he finishes doing it, he asks Minnie to fly with him. While they are on the air, Mickey always tries to kiss Minnie. It makes Minnie parachute off the plane. Mickey loses control of his plane. The humorous events started and the plane must have land-crushed. Many things happen accidentally (you should watch it by yourselves ^o^ ) In this movie, we also see Clarabelle the Cow for the first time. We also can meet Felix the Cat, although just for a moment.

The first movie from Walt Disney Company which uses sound is Steamboat Willie, and it still has Mickey as the star. It was released November 18, 1928. It was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon — after Plane Crazy (May 1928) and The Gallopin’ Gaucho (August 1928) — to be made and the first with sound. The story is about Mickey driving the steamboat, whistling, puts himself as a captain of the boat. But the real captain is Pete, his long-lasting rival. We also can see an unnamed female mouse (who later known as Minnie), accidentally drops her sheet music for the popular folk song “Turkey in the Straw,” which is eaten by a goat. Then Mickey and Minnie uses their tails to play the tunes. By the way, I’ve found one nice figurine of Mickey Mouse “Steamboat Willie”… You should check it out… and there is a cute watch too, you can see it here (it’s rare…).

Do You Know?

The Disneyland Address is 1313 S. Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim, CA. Walt Disney wants to deny the superstition that 13 is the bad number. In the fact, Disneyland becomes one of the greatest amusement park in the world. Besides, the double 13 reflects initial of Mickey Mouse’s name (M is the 13th alphabet in the list).

Well, as the title, the success of Walt Disney, was all started from a Mouse…

Walter Elias Disney, or we usually know as Walt Disney, is one of my inspiration. His contribution to this world will never be forgotten. I cannot imagine the world without Walt Disney. If he had never been born, the world would have never known his optimist, magic, and belief. I would have never believed that our dreams could come true if we believe it.

Walt Disney was born at Chicago, Illinois, December 5^th, 1901. His parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call, raised him with his brothers and sister. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. They are Herbert Arthur Disney, Raymond Arnold Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Walter Elias Disney, and the only girl, Ruth Flora Disney. Walt’s father, Elias, had a friend Walter Parr and Elias named his fourth son after both his name and his friend’s.

Since his childhood, Walt Disney loved drawing. Even when his family lived in Marceline, Missouri, their neighbor “Doc” Sherwood paid Walt to draw pictures of a horse, Rupert, which belongs to The Sherwoods.

Walt and his family then moved to Kansas City in 1901. There, Walt and Ruth attended The Benton Grammar School. They also met Walter Pfeiffer in this place, who then introduced Walt to motion pictures. Walt also loved to entertain his classmates by imitating his silent hero, Charlie Chaplin, or telling stories while illustrating on the chalk board. Later on, he even sneaked out of the house at the night, for performing comical skits at local theatres.

In the fall 1917, Walt went to McKinley High School and became the cartoonist for the school newspaper. He also took night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. His cartoons were focused on World War I, and then at the age of sixteen, he dropped out from school to join the Army. But the Army rejected him because he was underage.

But Walt did not give up. With his friend, he decided to join Red Cross and he was sent to France, where he drove an ambulance. He spent a year driving the ambulance. And guess what, his ambulance was full of Disney cartoons!

Returned from France, Walt decided to start career in commercial art, which soon led him to his experiments in animation. He began producing ads for magazines, newspapers, and movie theatres in Kansas City for Pesmen-Rubin. There he met a cartoonist named Ubbe Iwerks. Both of them became close-friends and then they decided to form a company named Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. By the time Walt had started to create The Alice Comedies, which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupted. But he didn’t give up. He brought his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies to Hollywood and gave it to a New York publisher, Margaret Winkler, and started a new business. He was not yet twenty-two.

His hard works had been paid. Alice Comedies was successful. This was the beginning of Disney Brothers’ Studio, which was located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district. In 1925, Walt hired a young woman named Lilian Bounds, worked to ink and paint celluloid, whom Walt got married in the same year.

In 1927, Walt and Iwerks created Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit. He was sure that it would be a hit, but unfortunately, Margaret Winkler’s husband, Charles B. Mintz betrayed him and stole the character from Disney’s company.­ It made Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and they were allowed to make movies without Disney.

After losing the trademark of Oswald, Walt Disney decided to develop a new character to replace it. He recalled his adopted pet, a mouse, while working in a Kansas City Studio. Along with Iwerks who made him a sketches, Disney decided to animate the character. The mouse was originally named Mortimer, but Lillian thought it did not fit. So Mickey Mouse was created. His first movie is Plane Crazy, a silent film. Then Walt decided to create a sound cartoon, which later known as Steamboat Willie. Mickey Mouse was designed by Ub Iwerks, but Walt Disney is the soul of Mickey Mouse. Walt himself provided voice and personality to Mickey Mouse. After Mickey Mouse, he made many animation movies with sound. The results is obvious. Everyone knows about Mickey Mouse, right?

Walt did not stop after that. He wanted more. He then made Silly Symphonies, along with Technicolor, the only color cartoons at that time. In 1932, Walt achieved his first Academy Awards for the production entitled Flowers and Trees. He then achieved his second award for the first full-length animated musical feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He then continued his works with Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo.

Walt Disney was also a loving, caring father and husband to his family. Walt and Lillian were blessed with Diane Disney and Sharon Disney. Walt wanted to have a place where children could have fun with their parents. This thought led him to create an amusement park. Disney spent five years of developing Disneyland. He supervised the Disneyland project by himself and was willing to bend or sit down while checking the attraction, just for getting the perspective from a child. Disneyland, one of the world’s first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful.

Walt Disney had smoking habits. In late 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. On November 2, 1966, Walt Disney was told to have an enormous tumor on his left lung. Five days later, he came back to the hospital for surgery, but the tumor had spread so the doctor must remove his entire left lung. He then took several chemotherapy sessions; later on he spent a short time in Palm Springs, California, before returning home with his beloved wife. On November 30 1966, Walt Disney collapsed at home and was brought to hospital. He died ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday, on December 15, 1966. The world had lost one of the great people.

Walt Disney had died, but his works continue. They keep creating wonderful movies, characters, and animation. As stated in a plague at the entrance of Disneyland, which shows the spirit of Disneyland:

source: everywhere (online)