I used to think he was like a big kid at heart that happened to build an empire of fun. However, I am about done reading "Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney". The book is very well researched and shows Disney in, I think, a balanced light....not too gushy and certainly not inflammatory or salacious.
What I found from my readings is that Disney was a business man through and through. Not money-wise like Roy but a man intent on running a successful business no matter what it takes. In my mind Disney was a Willy Wonka type big kid (but not psychotically whimiscal) at heart who wanted nothing more than to make family films, create a cartoon wolrd of beloved characters and open a theme park where we could all get together with our families.
While this is the case, he fired long time friends, played hardball with his workers, could be impatient and distant and was first and foremost intent on running his company with an iron fist. It was a company founded on animation but expanded in a natural direction to include marketing of toys and clothes, etc., into live action films, television shows and then a theme park. It really makes me wonder what he had in store next, but also what he would have risked to get it.
Walt was ALL ABOUT risking everything. I get the feeling that if he could have gambled away Mickey Mouse himself to further his empire he would not hesitate. It gives new meaning to his adage that "Disney is not a museum." I don't think a single ride in any park was sacred and untouchable by Disney. The second it didn't make him a profit he would have cut it I'm sure.
One very interesting thing I have also noticed from reading multiple books on Disney is what a failure his animation career really was. Snow White was a monster hit. Pinocchio failed and Walt regretted making it. Fantasia was a failure and so was everything up until Cinderella. And Cinderella was his final gamble. If it didn't hit it big, he was done with animation and ready to move on. But then, subsequent films were basically failures until Little Mermaid. We look back on almost all of his animation and it seems so legendary, timeless, beautiful, breathtaking and groundbreaking but this was not always the case and certainly not the case at the time. And what we call a classic like Pinocchio, he called a failure. We find Alice in Wonderland charming, colorful and whimsically fun. Walt found it an unlikeable, unsympathetic failure.
From all this I find that Walt was a man that just kept plugging away and moving ahead against all odds. And that is most admirable. What Walt called failures he turned into successes. And maybe it took some time but most everything he did was a success after all.
Disney has changed for me. He is no longer a man of whimsy and fun that built Disney for us but more a man of drive and determination who built Disney for him and allowed us to tag along on his ride. Disney isn;t a company about cartoons but a company showing good old fashioned American ingenuity and achievement. The whole Disney story is a textbook case of how America was built.
And that's what I think about Walt Disney.
:wave:
What I found from my readings is that Disney was a business man through and through. Not money-wise like Roy but a man intent on running a successful business no matter what it takes. In my mind Disney was a Willy Wonka type big kid (but not psychotically whimiscal) at heart who wanted nothing more than to make family films, create a cartoon wolrd of beloved characters and open a theme park where we could all get together with our families.
While this is the case, he fired long time friends, played hardball with his workers, could be impatient and distant and was first and foremost intent on running his company with an iron fist. It was a company founded on animation but expanded in a natural direction to include marketing of toys and clothes, etc., into live action films, television shows and then a theme park. It really makes me wonder what he had in store next, but also what he would have risked to get it.
Walt was ALL ABOUT risking everything. I get the feeling that if he could have gambled away Mickey Mouse himself to further his empire he would not hesitate. It gives new meaning to his adage that "Disney is not a museum." I don't think a single ride in any park was sacred and untouchable by Disney. The second it didn't make him a profit he would have cut it I'm sure.
One very interesting thing I have also noticed from reading multiple books on Disney is what a failure his animation career really was. Snow White was a monster hit. Pinocchio failed and Walt regretted making it. Fantasia was a failure and so was everything up until Cinderella. And Cinderella was his final gamble. If it didn't hit it big, he was done with animation and ready to move on. But then, subsequent films were basically failures until Little Mermaid. We look back on almost all of his animation and it seems so legendary, timeless, beautiful, breathtaking and groundbreaking but this was not always the case and certainly not the case at the time. And what we call a classic like Pinocchio, he called a failure. We find Alice in Wonderland charming, colorful and whimsically fun. Walt found it an unlikeable, unsympathetic failure.
From all this I find that Walt was a man that just kept plugging away and moving ahead against all odds. And that is most admirable. What Walt called failures he turned into successes. And maybe it took some time but most everything he did was a success after all.
Disney has changed for me. He is no longer a man of whimsy and fun that built Disney for us but more a man of drive and determination who built Disney for him and allowed us to tag along on his ride. Disney isn;t a company about cartoons but a company showing good old fashioned American ingenuity and achievement. The whole Disney story is a textbook case of how America was built.
And that's what I think about Walt Disney.
:wave:
Yes, Walt was ruthless, straight to the point, business man who took risks and felt that he failed on a majority of his projects. But he did paved the way animation. He truly is a legend.
