In 1917, 16 year old Walter Disney dropped out of high school to serve in the army, although he was rejected as he was too young
After serving as an ambulance driver in France, Walt returned to America and was hired for the Kansas City Film Ad company where he made cutout animations.
Disney later decided to start his own animation company with one of his former coworkers. They released short films called Laugh-O-Grams, as well as a a series of films called "Alice in Cartoon Land."
His animations were quite popular, although worsening debt forced him to declare bankruptcy in the mid 1920's.
Walt, along with one of his co-workers, Ubbe Iwerks, well as his brother Roy, began a new animation company in California. They quickly made a deal with Margaret Winkler, part of a New York Company, to distribute the Alice cartoons, and created shorts with a new character, Oswald the lucky rabbit, at $1500 per film.
However, things came crashing down when Margaret and her husband took everyone of Disney's animators and stole the rights to Oswald.
Disney, his brother, and Iwerks, along with their wives, created an animation for Walts new character Micky Mouse. The animation was Titled Steamboat Willie, and Walt was the voice of Mickey.
Steamboat Willie was a hit, and soon after came the rest of the classic gang, with animations that included Donald, Minnie, goofy, and Pluto. And in 1937, They released their first full length film, "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs." Disney and his company were looking up from here, despite a small bump in the road when employees when on strike and they shaken. After this, Walt was making classics, from "Cinderella," to "Alice in Wonderland," to "Peter pan."