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He created Mickey Mouse and produced the first full-length animated movie.He invented the theme park(注:theme park 主题公园)and originated the modern multimedia corporation.For better or worse,his innovations have shaped our world and theway we experienced it.
The truth about Disney,Who was described by an observant writer as "a tall,somber man who appeared to be under the lash of(注:under the lash of:under the control of 在…影响下,在…控制下)some private demon",is slightly less benign and a lot more interesting.Uncle Walt actually didn't have an avuncular bone in his body.Though he could manage a sort of gruff amiability with strangers,his was,in fact,a withdrawn,suspicious and,above all,controlling nature.And with good—or anyway explicable—reason.
For he was born to a poverty even more dire(注:dreadful,terrible 可怕的)emotionally than it was economically.His father was one of those feckless figures who wandered seeking success in many occupations but always finding sour failure.He spared his children affection,but never the rod.They all fled him at the earliest possible moment.
Before leaving home at 16 to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps(注:Red Cross Ambulance Corps:红十字会救护队)duringWorld War Ⅰ,Walt,the youngest son,had discovered he could escape Dad's—and life's—meanness in art classes.In the service he kept drawing,and when he was mustered out (注:muster out:(美)使退伍,使退役),he set up a shop as a commercial artist in Kansas City,Mo.(注:Missouri 密苏里州的简写).There he discovered animation,a new field,widely open to an ambitious young man determined to escape his father's sorry fate.
Reduced to living in his studio and eating cold beans out ofa can,Disney endured the hard times any worthwhile success story demands.It was not until he moved to Los Angeles and partnered with his shrewd and kindly older brother Roy,who took care of business for him,that he began to prosper modestly.Even so,his first commercially viable creation,Oswald the Rabbit,was stolen from him.But,after that,Mickey made his appearance and became a symbol of the unconquerably chipper(注:精力充沛的;活泼的,开心的)American spirit in the depths of Depression(注:指1929-1933年间席卷美国的经济大萧条).
Mickey owed a lot of his initial success,however,to Disney's technological acuity,for Disney was the first to add a music and effects track to a cartoon.Artistically the 1930s were Disney's best years.When he risked everything on his first feature,Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,it turnedout to be no risk at all,so breathless was his work embraced.Even the intellectual and artistic communities saw in it akind of populist authenticity-naive and sentimental,courageousand life affirming.
Predictably,he became the first Hollywood mogul(注:大亨,重要人物)to embrace television.The show with him as host for over a decade became not just a profit center for his company but also a promotional engine for all its works.There included chuckleheaded(注:stupid,simple-minded 傻乎乎的)live-action comedies,nature documentaries that personified their subjects,and,of course,Disneyland,which attracted his compulsive attention in the 50s and 60s.
Disneyland was another risk and Disney threw himself obsessively into the park's design,which anticipated many of the best features of modern urban planning,and into the "imagineering"(注:imagine和engineering的缩写,此处的意思是想象工程)by which the simulacrums(注:仿制品,仿造物)ofexotic,even dangerous creatures,places,fantasies could be unthreateningly reproduced.In his eyes,this park would be a small world,in which the dirt,rudeness,mischance and anything approaching authentic life would be totally eliminated.When Disneyland opened in 1955,Disney finally established a world of his own,which people had to experience on his terms.
Before he was felled(注:be felled:被打倒)by cancer at 65,it is possible to imagine that he was happy.The little boy,envious of the placid small-town life from which he was shut out,has become mayor—no,absolute dictator—of a land wherehe could impose his ideals on everyone.The restless,hungryyoung entrepreneur has achieved undreamed wealth,power and honor.Asked late in his life what he was proudest of,he didn't mention his children or the promulgation(注:宣扬,宣传)of family values."The fact that I was able to build an organization and hold it," said he.This sentiment,unintended and often enough unexplored,persists,subtly but surely,affecting the ways we all live,think and dream.
他创造了米老鼠,还制作了第一部全本动画片;他创办了主题乐园,而且还创立了现代化的多媒体公司。不管是好是坏,他的创新已大大影响了我们的世界和我们体验这个世界的方式。
一位观察力敏锐的作家把迪斯尼描写为“一个身材高大、神情忧郁,看上去被某种不为人知的坏习惯控制的人”。迪斯尼其人略欠慈爱,但非常有趣。沃尔特大叔其实根本说不上慈爱。虽然对着陌生人他还能勉强装出和蔼可亲的样子,但他的这种姿态极为生硬。他本性害羞且多疑,尤其想支配一切。对此,他是有正当或至少是可以接受的理由的。
理由是他出生于一个经济上贫困,感情上更为贫乏的家庭。他的父亲是一个不负责任的人,他到处游荡,寻求发迹的机会,可总是以酸楚的失败而告终。他给予孩子们的爱甚少,稍不顺心就棍棒相加。所以,一有机会,他们就早早地从他身边逃开了。
一战期间,16岁的沃尔特离开家参加了红十字会救护队。在这之前,这个家中排行最小的男孩发现在艺术课上可以躲避父亲和生活对他的吝啬。服役期间,他坚持画画;退役后,他以商业艺术家的身份在密苏里的堪萨斯城开了一家店。在那里,他发现了动画绘制。对于一个雄心勃勃地决心避免重蹈父亲覆辙的年轻人来说,这是一片崭新的天地。
一开始,迪斯尼不得不住在摄影棚里,吃着冰冷的罐头豆子度日。他捱过了一段艰难的日子,任何杰出人物在飞黄腾达之前都有这样的经历。后来,他搬到洛杉矶和他那位精明和蔼的兄长罗伊合伙,罗伊帮他照看生意,直到这时,他的生意才略有起色。尽管如此,他的第一个极具商业潜力的创作——兔子奥斯沃尔德还是被人剽窃了。但是,在那之后,米老鼠露面了。在深陷经济大萧条的美国,米老鼠成了不可征服的、精力充沛的美国精神的象征。
不过,米老鼠最初的成就要归功于迪斯尼在技术上的敏锐性,因为迪斯尼最早给卡通片配上了音乐和电影音响声迹。从艺术角度来说,30年代是迪斯尼的黄金岁月。迪斯尼冒险把一切都押在他的第一部故事片《白雪公主和七个小矮人》上,结果却有惊无险,他的作品受到热烈欢迎。甚至知识界和艺术界也看出这部影片蕴含着平民主义的真理——天真而充满感情,勇敢又热爱生命。
可以想见,他是好莱坞第一个利用电视的大亨。十几年来他主持的电视节目不但是公司的赢利中心,而且还大力推广了公司的作品。这些作品包括傻乎乎的、实景真人喜剧电影,还有把大自然拟人化的纪录片,当然还包括迪斯尼乐园。在50年代和60年代,他的注意力不由自主地被迪斯尼乐园吸引住了。
迪斯尼乐园是他的另一项冒险事业。他全身心地投入了乐园的设计,融入了预计中的许多现代城市规划的主要特点;他着魔似地投入了这项“想象工程”,通过这项工程可以没有任何危险地复制了一些奇异甚至危险的生物和地方的幻象。在他看来,这座乐园就是一个小小的世界,在那里,任何肮脏、粗鲁、不幸和接近现实生活的事物全都被清除。1955年迪斯尼乐园开放时,迪斯尼终于拥有了一个属于他的世界,在这个世界里,别人不得不按照他的规矩来体验。
他在65岁时被癌症夺去了生命。可以想象他在这之前是快乐的。这个向往宁静的小镇生活,却始终被排拒在外的小男孩,最终成了一片土地的统治者,不,是绝对的独裁者。在那片土地上,他可以把自己的设想强加在每个人身上。这位永不安宁、渴望成功的年轻企业家拥有了他做梦也没想到过的财富、权利和荣誉。在他晚年,当被问及他这一辈子他感到最自豪的是什么,他没有提及他的孩子,也没有宣扬什么家庭道德观念,他的回答是:“我成功地建立了一个世界而且掌握着它。”这种感情,并非刻意表露,也未被深究,但一直保留至今,不知不觉但确确实实地影响着我们所有的人,影响着我们的生活、我们的思维和我们的梦想。