Walt Disney

Zero to Hero:

How do we think of Walt? Just a name on the front of a huge, world-wide corporation. The name in front of every well-animated classic we have stacked somewhere along our old VHS shelf in our homes, (of which we just assume it is a Disney film if it’s good). The name on the front of the world’s most popular and thrilling theme park, present in several completely different countries.
Either way, it’s certainly one of the biggest and internationally well-known names in the world today. But what I find inspirational about it was that the name was made through the hard and persistent work of a remarkable man, with a unique view on the world of creativity. A man who started with almost nothing, who went bankrupt on several occasions, who put his whole career on the line just to take those risks of exploring new sensational innovation. Such risks are important to a lot of our culture today.
My project was not so much based around this man’s immortal greatness, but how he got there in the first place. How he went from nothing to Walt Disney…

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. ” – Walt Disney

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I discovered a fantastic page filled with quotes from Walt Disney. The man is some what of a mentor to me, in some areas, for his quotes cut deep into the routes of what I believe creatively.

Here are some examples, and a link to the website itself is suppled in the tags:

“A man should never neglect his family for business.”

“All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.”

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” 

“Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.”

“Animation is different from other parts. Its language is the language of caricature. Our most difficult job was to develop the cartoon’s unnatural but seemingly natural anatomy for humans and animals.”

“Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.”

“Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource – the minds of our children.”
“Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.” 

“I believe in being an innovator.”

“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.”

“I don’t like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It’s just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.”

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Stumbled upon documentary called ‘The Secret Life of Walt Disney.’ I saw that this could dampen my attitude towards the man, but I thought best to know about the man from all angles…

The documentary was extremely bias against Walt Disney, and often exaggerated in places – not mentioning any of his good points or personal achievements. However, there was no denying by the end of it that there was indeed a dark side to Walt – in his involvement with the Communism paranoia in America and the over-protectiveness for his power and image.

So here’s what I have gathered: Walt was a great visionary and innovator, with a great sense and hunger for quality, a magnificent storyteller and a commanded a great sense of respect in general. However, I believe he was very pro-American. He did not spew a hatred for racially different people in his cartoons, like it is suggested today, but I believe he had a sense of American-superiority, which was not uncommon back then. He had an ego that may have gone off the rails – resulting in him becoming very protective over his family-man and big-shot image, taking more credit that what he sometimes deserved in pictures, and hailing his own status. He was delusional in some respects, as he had favorites in his studio and although he often made it out to the public that it was a happy-family place to work in, he ignored many of the feeling and complaints of others. This was the main reason towards the strikes. Walt got very aggravated towards the strikes and even a little unstable as time went on. He was not realistic in the way he handled it, and the resentment to the strikes caused him to do the terrible thing of giving out names of the strikers as ‘Communists’ during the McCarthy era, which was in no doubt also assisted by his pro-American views.

So he was not as shiny as his public-image makes him out to be – like every human-being with a lot of power. I believe that it was that incident with Oswald the Rabbit that encouraged him to cling onto power no-matter-what, and that caused him to be harsh and sometimes irrational when it came to his decision and others in his later years. I believe he also fell in love with his own image and reputation.

However, the way this man thought still revolutionized creativity and animation. He still injected such a brilliant view and standard of quality into film and animation that still stands today. He was a great leader and pointer in the direction for so many great productions, that inspired geniuses, great talents and many others in many ways today. He shaped the world a great deal. I think it’s absolutely best that we remember him for this image, and not the negatives, although let them always be a reminder in reality. But that image is also what inspired me and continues to do so, and I’d like to keep it that way.

I knew the man wasn’t perfect. Now I know the details a bit more. But hey, do we know of many big creative geniuses that don’t stumble one way or another in their legend?