He is often not given his proper due in film history, but the legacy of Walt Disney, the animator turned entrepreneur, is an amazing story of American cinema and worldwide ambitions. The name itself DISNEY is all one needs to conjure up a certain kind of cinema. From the early classic animation of the 1930s and 1940s to today's digital animation releases, the Disney brand is unlike any other in Hollywood. The studio has, for 70 years, been at the forefront of innovation.

To celebrate the creative ingenuity of the studio that bares his name, the Zlin Film Festival is screening films from Disney's two golden ages. The first of these occured in the late 1930s and into the 1950s, when feature-length animation was still wildly new and somewhat experimental. From this period the Festival is screening the classics SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1938), FANTASIA (1940), DUMBO (1941) and LADY AND THE TRAMP (1955).

In the 1960s and 1970s, the studio became more involved with its live action films, or films that combined live action and animation (most successfully in MARY POPPINS), but there were few animation classics. In fact, after Disney's death, there was a period when the company seemed to be failing, except for its very successful theme parks. However, since the 1990s, the studio has been revitalized with new management and creative talents that have put it back on top again. Two of the more contemporary classics will be screened here, including BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991) and THE LION KING (1994).

The Festival is also having the Eastern European premiere of Disney's latest jewel in the crown, WINNIE THE POO from the classic children's story by A.A. Milne. The film is co-directed by the team of Stephen John Anderson and Don Hall, and features the voices of Jim Cummings, Craig Ferguson, John Cleese and Tom Kenny. For more information on the complete program of the Zlin Film Festival, visit: www.zlinfest.cz/en

Sandy Mandelberger, Zlin Festival Dailies Editor