Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios in 1953

The Disney studio is big (it covers 51 acres) and resembles a huge and complicated machine. Up to 400 draftsmen, editors, artists, cameramen, musicians, idea men, special effects men, all kinds of technicians, are required for even the shortest cartoon. There are inventions of great complexity and ingenuity... But being Disney’s, the special stamp of this machine is that it careens along looking as if every screw inside were loose. The wanderer through the studio will come across animators making faces in mirrors to get ideas for the looney animals they are drawing.

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. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Behind the scenes at Disney studios, 1953. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Voicing a character for the feature cartoon, The Lady and the Tramp. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

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. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

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. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Creating sound effects for a Disney movie, 1953. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Disney artists check a cel from the film, The Lady and the Tramp. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A Disney animator and a character he's drawn. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right. (Photos: Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Walt Disney. (Photos: J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

(via TIME)