Friday 7 October 2016

Walt Disney : The Futurist

Sometimes a person can get so wrapped up in the myths that surround them that they don't feel real anymore. For me that had started to happen to Walt Disney.

He is such a prominent feature in our industry and in the world today. I think people find it easy to roll their eyes or shrug his achievements off. He does have many rumours and myths surrounding him. Rumours that, I'm sad to say, had almost permeated my brain and got stuck there.  Almost all of which were reveled 20 years after his death. It is sad that to post this video on here and to say that you should watch this documentary about Walt Disney I first felt the need to defend the reasons I'm posting it.

What we do know about him is that this man hired some of the worlds first woman animators in 1938, despite it not being seen as a 'done thing' back then. He gave us talents such as Mary Blair, Retta Scott, Bianca Majolie and Sylvia Moberly-Holland. He introduced the world to incredible talent such as Floyd Norman, Disney's first African American animator/story artist in 1956, and helped create war films that would help end World War two. Most of the time he did this by using money from his own pocket, not government funds.
I am not naive enough to think I know even 1% about this mans life, but it is a shame that younger generations are taking jokes from Family Guy and Robot Chicken as 100% fact. Here is an interesting study on both sides of the Disney argument: Here

This man created so many technical advancements and brought out the best in so many creative people. His films have made millions of people happy . This is a documentary looking , not at the myths, but at the Futurist side to him and all the things he dreamed up. It is slightly baffling to watch a documentary like this and realise just how much he created for us.  I loved this documentary. It made me proud to be in our industry and it had me jumping around the room with inspiration.

Our industry is just in its infancy. Documentaries like this make me excited for the future. If we have achieved all of this already then I can't wait to see what is to come.

I'd definitely recommend you give it a watch:




Happy Animating x