By Jerry Robbins
(This story is an adaption of a technique used by Walt Disney in the production of cartoons. He would write up suggestions for the plot, characters, and action of the cartoon before the project was turned over to the animators.)
We want this presentation of Walt Disney’s life to dramatize his enormous energy and creativity, and also his genius in harnessing the talents of so many people and inspiring them to do their best work. Let’s make the first part of the cartoon in black and white and save the color for when Walt’s life as a cartoonist began.
The first part could be like a travelogue showing his birth on December 5, 1901 in Chicago. Since he was named after a preacher friend, you might do some cute angels at his birth who play humorous tricks on each other, a foretatse of what is to come. Show a young, wiry, toe-headed Walt working on the farm (this could be done with music, perhaps, “Whistle While You Work.”), the family move to Kansas City, his work as a newspaper boy, attending Benton Grammar School, his early interest in reading, drawing, and vaudeville, another family move to Chicago, attendance at McKinley HIgh School, where he supplied cartoons for the school magazine, working for the post office, his wartime stint in France with the Ambulance Corp, his decision to become an artist, working at an art studio where he meets Ubbe Iwwerkes (You could make something of his name), who later became his chief animator, a job as a cartoonist in Kansas and increasing collaboration with brother Roy who spotted a future for both of them in cartoon film. (For background music use,”Heigh, Ho. It’s Off to Work We Go.”)
We don’t want to get bogged down in dull details. Make every pat appealing. Put gags in wherever you can. Like the time Walt and his brother tarred their house, and the time Walt lost his horse while delivering papers. We want to show how Walt’s skills were being formed in these early years. Make a moral for young people about hard work and following one’s talents (Leave out the fact that he did not finish high school!) Also the importance of honesty. Walt didn’t like the rough, jerky cartoons others were producing. He wanted his subjects to look real. Show that what he wanted to do was not so much a cerebral thing as to connect with those human feelings that are in everybody. you might do a little skit on the parts of the body tugging for dominance and show Walt rescuing the heart and making it the Grand Marshall of a colorful parade of all kinds of characters and creatures.
The next part of the film will describe Walt’s rise to fame as a cartoonist. Show the gradual development of his talents and the emergence of his unique style.
Think of some way to dramatize his early philosophy, i.e., “to picture on the screen things that have run through the imagination of the audience…” things which “…somewhere, or at some time, the audience has felt or met with, or seen, or dreamt.” Perhaps this message could play on the screen along with clips from Walt’s various early productions, “Steamboat WIllie,” “the Three little Pigs,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Bambi,” “Pinnochio,” “Alice in Wonderland,” etc. Use Mickey Mouse (b. 1928) as narrator for this part.Let’s bring out the fact that Walt was able to gather and inspire huge numbers of very creative people with his ideas, that he used the best research and development strategies, that he was very supportive of his workers, and he kept a constant overview of his projects. We also want to show that Walt was an unwavering optimist. When others said it couldn’t be done, Walt said, “Try another way.” This might be done with a sequence showing a large room with draftsman working eagerly. A loop of film could be playing on the wall showing Walt on the side of a huge chasm, unable to cross. He tries various ideas, makes a rope of vines to swing across, finds a trail down that crosses at the bottom, and so forth. You could work in some gags here of Walt stumbling and getting lost. The draftsmen in the room could be pointing and laughing at the scenario. Finally a solution. High above a large stork is circling, keeping his eye on Walt. It swoops down grabs Walt by the collar, and gently carries him to the divide. Make the stork handsome and strong, and hang a sign around his neck, “Perseverance.” Provide a chorus of animals on the side who whoop and cheer a Walt lands. There could be a lot of frolicking and singing at this point. Pan away from the film to a poster in the animator’s room which reads, “Who said it couldn’t be done.” The end.
Along this line somewhere we could have a very dramatic scene in which several of the obstacles that could have swamped the Disney enterprise show up as menacing figures and launch an attack on Walt. Call it something like.”Walt Disney and the Seven Ogres.” There’s this ship at sea. Walt is captain of a crew of investors and animators when a storm blows up, waves pounding, looming up on the side of the boat. The waves take on dark dragonlike forms, or witch shapes and strike at the ship. They are named Pessimism, The Depression, Debt, World War II, Greed, Bankruptcy, and Unions. Play the music , “The Sorcerer’s Appprentice.” Walt struggles with the ship, applies every ounce of his strength to keep it afloat and on course. Show the ship tossing wildly and nearly foundering, then emerging from from this ferocious chaos into a sunlit bay where it is greeted by doves an bluebirds, and a bright rainbow in the distance. Animals from Disney cartoons emerge from the hold and prance on the deck. This would be a swell place to insert a song, “When you wish Upon a Star,” and to picture childen of all nationalities on the shore in front of the boat smiling and waving to the ship.
We need a section that tells about Walt’s journey into the amusement park industry (1954). Since Walt was fond of trains, and had his own one-eighth scale railroad, sit him on his train and whisk him around Disneyland, designed as “a place for parents and children…based upon and dedicated to his ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…filled with the accomplishments, the joys and the hopes of the world we live in.” He huffs and he puffs to the various parts of the the park and ends at Futureland, only this is about Walt’s future. Have displays of his part in the 1960 Olympics, the 1964 World’s Fair and his plans for a Florida Park, first choice Ocala, (begun 1959) to be named DisneyWorld, part amusement park, and part Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow(EPCOT).
Walt’s death on December 15, 1967 must be presented in a very upbeat way. Perhaps Mary Poppins could be shown at Walt’s bedside. She takes his hand and they ascend. Corny is OK. It will make the people smile and Walt would have liked that. Also use the World Symphony. This extraordinary man’s influence stretched around the globe.