It's both amazing and amusing to me that there are people chatting on a Disney board who seem to love to diminish Walt's accomplishments as a way to justify the actions of a cement-headed CEO. Yeah, you guys are right - what Walt did with Snow White and Pinocchio and Bambi weren't anything much. And what Robert Iger has done - bought Marvel and Muppets and Star Wars - is exactly what Walt did when he bought the rights to Mary Poppins and so on. No difference whatsoever. Yeesh!
Sure, other people made adaptations of some of the stories Walt later developed for film. But were any of those memorable? Have any of them stood the test of time? The definitive versions of those properties were created by Walt and his artists, and those versions have remained popular because they were done so well. Iron Man, Kermit and all that stuff have already been fully developed by other people; Disney played no part in their creation or adaptation. The difference between what Walt did with Pinocchio and what Iger did by buying Marvel is the difference between creating a sculpture and merely buying one. It's the difference between acquisition and artistry. And that difference used to make ALL the difference when it came to Disney, before it stopped being a creative mecca and became a storehouse for various cast-off "brands". Sad, sad, sad...
