Walt Disney Archives

This Day in Disney
May 11, 1935
Silly Symphony Water Babies Released
The 1938 Silly Symphony Water Babies splashed onto screens in 1938, allowing viewers to peek in on an entire typical day of the water babies in just over eight minutes. Starting at the moment the adorable kewpie-like kids awake on their lily pads and ending when they return to sleep, the lovable creatures are seen romping around at play in the water and hopping aboard fish, swans and other aquatic modes of transportation to land. There they dance and play, bounce on spider webs like trampolines, while a brave little baby bullfights with a bullfrog. All just a typical day in the life of water babies.

What's Old is News
We Open the Walt Disney Archives to Disney Fans Around the World
Go back in time with us by checking out these original press materials and other archival treasures from the Walt Disney Archives.
An almost forgotten era of America's history is relived by guests entering Disneyland's Main Street, USA.
Summer Visitors to Disneyland will be treated to many "extra-added attractions" in the form of special entertainment daily, both day and night.
Tired of civilization? Looking for something really different to do? Well, if a side-trip "far from civilization" sounds intriguing, Walt Disney has come up with the solution.
Slide down a waterfall. Fish for a rainbow trout, and sleep near "the happiest place on earth."


Archives Library
During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana.
Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else.
Take a nostalgic, informative and sometimes hilarious trip back in time to remember some of these classic Disney originals — from Clara Cluck to Pluto!
A complete list of Disney Legends — the special few who embody the Company's unique creative spirit as personified by its founder.
From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Race to Witch Mountain, here's a complete list of Disney films.
Browse through this bibliography of books written about Walt and Roy, The Walt Disney Company and Disney films, characters, music and theme parks.







Disney fans and D23 members have already sent us dozens of questions for Chief Archivist Dave Smith. Here are Dave's answers to a set of your first questions. Check back every week — we'll be publishing more of our beloved Disney Legend's answers to your questions about Disney history!

Q: Is Mickey's rival, Pete, a cat? In the older black-and-white cartoons with Alice and Oswald, he sometimes looks like a bear.
Kyle, Imperial Beach, California
A: Pete is indeed meant to be a cat, at least a humanized cat. Sometimes he was drawn with a peg leg and was known as Peg Leg Pete; other times we was known as Black Pete. He was actually one of the earliest of the named Disney characters, debuting in the silent Alice Comedies several years before Oswald and Mickey.

Q: Is it really true that Sleeping Beauty saved The Walt Disney Company from going bankrupt?
Doug, Sylmar, California
A: No. The profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and later from Cinderella, helped get the Company in a profitable mode, but Sleeping Beauty was not was not quite in the same category. Sleeping Beauty was a very expensive film for its time (more than $6 million), and it did not prove to be a tremendous box office success in its initial release. This year, with its 50th anniversary, critics and fans are taking a second look at Sleeping Beauty and reaffirming its place as one of the most strikingly designed animated features.

Q: Was Walt Disney there at the premiere of the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon?
Kat, Salt Lake City, Utah
A: We do not know for sure, but he was in New York on November 18, 1928 when Steamboat Willie premiered at the Colony Theater, so it is likely that he was there. I certainly would have been there if it was my film. We have here in the Archives the actual program for the Colony Theater for that day. Steamboat Willie was the first film on the program, which started at noon. Walt may have been the source of that program, having brought it or sent it back to the Studio.

Q: One of my favorite attractions growing up as a kid in California was Disneyland's PeopleMover in Tomorrowland. I can still hear the music in my head that played in the cars. I heard once that this music was from a generic production music catalog. Is this true or was the music actually created by Disney for the attraction?
Don, Seattle, Washington
A: The PeopleMover music was composed by Disney Legend Buddy Baker (1918-2002), the prolific composer who provided the music for many Disney park attractions.