If Walt Disney was alive.

[Movielover]

Who knows what the company and certainly WDW would look like if Walt had lived longer. It was pretty obvious that he was moving away from the theme park aspects of his life and more towards the urban planning. Some were saying that he would have gone into politics but I don't think so. I believe he would have continue to mold and shape E.P.C.O.T. until he was satisfied and moved on to a next project, most likely one that involved spreading the E.P.C.O.T. Idea to other locations.

 

[Launchpad McQuack]

The Walt Disney Company takes in billions in profits annually, I'm sure he'd be very pleased. Though when Disney announces sosmething and people say 'Walt would not approve', that bothers me. You're not Walt, you don't know what he would have thought, no one does. So there really is no point speculating.

This is really the only needed response to this topic, but it won't keep people from saying everything from the cost of churros in the parks to Donald Trump in Hall of Presidents to Ariana Grande performing on the Christmas special has him "rolling in his gave."

 

[Goofyernmost]

I think he would be impressed with what his dreams have become worldwide. He would be disappointed that EPCOT never happened, but, remember when he died all there was besides Disney Studio, was Disneyland and a huge amount of swamp land in Florida. It should be sufficient fuel for anyone's ego to see how his imagination and concepts caught the imagination of the world and spread that idea globally. And just to see WDW and the Orlando area alone would be something that anyone would be proud to know that they put in motion. We really tend to sell Walt short quite often that he would be disapproving of so many things that I feel he would have embraced and admired.

 

[Amidala]

It's as ridiculous to deny the prejudiced overtones of Disney's early work as it is to ignore the impact that his lifetime would have had upon his beliefs.

I agree! Examples of racism in Disney's early films are always immediately dismissed as "a product of their time," as if people of different races didn't exist and take issue with these things as much so in the 1950s as they do now. Walt was a flawed human being, and idealizing him won't change that. Even putting aside the back-and-forth about Walt's history with X group, Walt's WWII propaganda, Song of the South, the portrayal of indigenous people in Peter Pan, the original Fantasia, and others were explicitly racist...there's a reason Disney has made an effort to cover up these things in recent years. Acknowledging this doesn't make him any less of an industry pioneer.

As for what he would think about WDW today, it's really hard (and some would say pointless) to speculate. But I do think "Walt wouldn't like [insert change here]" has become code for "I personally don't like [insert change here]" in many cases. Walt was constantly pushing for technological advancements (animatronics, omnimovers, etc.) so I don't think it makes much sense to use him as an excuse to treat all original attractions in the parks as sacred and untouchable. Everything has to move forward eventually...Disney is a business first and foremost.

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

Walt would have very high blood pressure right now if he was still here.

 

[KentB3]

Yeesh.

As for being "racist" - the way those toons depicted African-Americans, Native Americans and the like were typical of the times and were not done out of malice. Was Elmer Fudd meant to be a slam on whites? And speaking of Elmer - Warner Bros. was the worst of all the studios when it came to stereotyping. Check out its toon "Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs", for instance. Very cringeworthy stuff.

As for Walt personally, Floyd Norman, an African-American Disney animator who worked with Walt on Sleeping Beauty and the Jungle Book, has refuted any claims Walt was racist. Given his credentials, you might want to take his word on that.

As for 'misogynist"...in 1941, Walt Disney told his staff he intended to hire and train women animators. When his (all-male) staff objected, he had this to say:

Disney told his male animators, who were currently drawing "Dumbo," to expect to see more women working at the studio, according to Sigman Lowery. “If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man,” Disney said, according to studio archives. “The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could.”

Wow, some misogynist huh? BTW, here's the link to the source for that quote: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/no...alt-disney-speech-on-women-animators-20131129

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, he wasn't an anti-Semite either. In fact, B'nai Brith, an organization that fights anti-Semitism, gave Walt a Man of the Year award after investigating that anti-Semite stuff. A few years later, Hadassah, a womens' Jewish group, also awarded him. So the anti-Semite rumor is false as well.

If you've been getting your info about Walt from the likes of Seth McFarlane and and Meryl Streep, bear in mind that while they are both accomplished in their fields, they are sadly, as is all too typical of today's Hollywood, political morons.

You're welcome.

VERY good point! Floyd Norman has set the record straight on such accusations against Walt Disney. Many, if not most, of these people are radicals trying to further their agenda, such as the hippies that invaded Disneyland in 1970:

http://www.disneyavenue.com/2015/08/the-day-disneyland-was-invaded-by.html

You were also right that Warner Bros. were FAR worse for potentially offensive portrayals of various minority groups in their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. MGM cartoons were much worse as well. For example, in the Tom & Jerry cartoons, Tom's original owner (named Mammy Two Shoes) and the blackface gags often used (one has Tom getting shot with a gun, which puts him in blackface instead of killing or injuring him).

As for Seth McFarlane, he is a radical and also very open about his drug use-- not the best role model for today's youth, or anyone for that matter!

 

[Magenta Panther]

Walt would have very high blood pressure right now if he was still here.

And for good reason.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Having said that, if Disney somehow survived to the present day, I would see him as having long gotten bored with theme parks, as he had with film, and gotten really interested in video games and other forms of interactive entertainment. At this point, he would be putting all his best people into working on VR experiences and how to make them profitable through online distribution.

About 19 years too late and he would be bored of it..

 

[Foltzy]

Well here's my belief.
Walt would've built the Florida Project to his satisfaction including a full EPCOT. He'd also expand the parks. Do I think we'd have AK and DHS, yes and no. We'd probably have more parks but not like DHS and AK. Those parks were created by Disney execs who didn't want to lose customers to competing parks who worked in areas they didn't (Busch Gardens and Universal). I don't think the parks would be as commercialized but they would still have many corporate rides and not many originals like the past.
However, I think EPCOT would've failed. It was based on new and groundbreaking technologies to create and efficient city. These methods were different from other cities today. So, when technology would inevitably advance, EPCOT would have more issues with keeping up with it and it wouldn't be able to progress like the rest of the world. Thus, it would ultimately fail. Kinda like DisneyQuest. It needed the advancements in technology but couldn't get them, and failed.

 

[World_Showcase_Lover007]

He'd be aggravated that there are only a handful of "value" resort hotels instead of them making up the majority of rooms on property. He'd also think "value" pricing was still a bit steep, as Walt's vision was that every middle class family would be able to afford a Disney vacation.