--- description: In a 1953 article titled 'A Silver Anniversary for Walt and Mickey,' LIFE magazine took its readers behind the scenes at Disney. title: Walt's Wild Men: Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f5b6aa699d11195/69876c0206f2c13cfa33292a/141202-disney-animators-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Walt's Wild Men: LIFE Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 4, 2014 8:01 PM CUT  Caption from LIFE. Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp." Caption from LIFE. Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp."Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 4, 2014 8:01 PM CUT For countless people around the world, the appeal of the pop-culture offerings from Walt Disney’s namesake studio has long been underpinned by what LIFE magazine once called “the Disney combination of action and humor, nostalgia and violence.” Those characteristics have largely held sway in Disney’s films for close to a century, from the earliest Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Willie cartoons and classics like _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ right up to the near-perfect _Toy Story_ movies (produced by Pixar, released by Disney) and blockbusters like _Frozen_. In the Nov. 2, 1953, issue of LIFE, in an article titled “A Silver Anniversary for Walt and Mickey,” the magazine took its readers behind the scenes at Disney: --- > “” --- Here, in this gallery, are some pictures that ran in that 1953 issue of LIFE — and several that didn’t. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Caption from LIFE. Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp." Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Creating sound effects for a Disney movie, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Behind the scenes at Disney studios, 1953. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Voicing a character for the feature cartoon, The Lady and the Tramp. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Disney artists check a cel from the film, The Lady and the Tramp. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A Disney animator and a character he's drawn. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Jim MacDonald, Disney's sound effects expert, blows across top of jug while other experts make murderous music out of bazooka, disembodied piano and assortment of strings, pipes, hinges, chains. J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Walt at work gives animated version of what he thinks action ought to look like as he directs story conference on his forthcoming Sleeping Beauty. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Walt Disney J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3614660/walts-wild-men-life-behind-the-scenes-at-disney-studios/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3614660/walts-wild-men-life-behind-the-scenes-at-disney-studios/"},"headline":"Walt's Wild Men: LIFE Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios","datePublished":"2014-12-04T20:01:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:50.522Z","description":"In a 1953 article titled 'A Silver Anniversary for Walt and Mickey,' LIFE magazine took its readers behind the scenes at Disney.","url":"https://time.com/3614660/walts-wild-men-life-behind-the-scenes-at-disney-studios/","keywords":["movies","Hollywood","photography","Walt Disney"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f5b6aa699d11195/69876c0206f2c13cfa33292a/141202-disney-animators-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f5b6aa699d11195/69876c0206f2c13cfa33292a/141202-disney-animators-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Disney Animators","caption":"Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, The Lady and The Tramp.","creditText":"Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3614660/walts-wild-men-life-behind-the-scenes-at-disney-studios/","name":"Walt's Wild Men: LIFE Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios"}}]}] ```